Theorising Autopedagogy; Relating Education to Human Rights
This is a collection of notes on the idea of autopedagogy – the self directed innate behaviour of garnering means with which to learn in structured ways. This speaks to ideas of a living curriculum and the creation of curricula through self orienteered gleaning, foraging, collating, creation and curation of activities. All the writings and the website of Ragged University act as an open copy book of the evolving and emerging ideas of education and models of learning available to everyone. Read more…
Leith Walk Policebox Pop Up Space
The Edinburgh police boxes are unique in that they were designed by the city architect Ebenezer McRae to complement the city’s neoclassical architecture. Dating from the 1930s, they are made from cast iron and weigh 2.2 tonnes. They were used by Edinburgh City Police for telecommunications as that was an era when telephones were not commonplace and police officers did not have personal radios. Read more…
Action Research: The Outcomes Star and Developing Novel Methodologies
What follows is the start of my action research project deconstructing of the Outcomes Star, a metric bureaucracy instated in various support-need junctures which the person receiving support has to fill in and go over with the person who is giving the support. This is one of various types of bureaucracy which people have to face (both citizen and worker). Read more…
For Everyone’s Information: About What Ragged University Is…
Ragged University events are all free and never involve any money. People are warmly invited to bring along an item of food to share on the table and help take away what is left at the end, but there is no obligation. This is a free education project. Read more…
Consuming Education; BERA Panel on Challenges, Threats & Opportunities across the Post-compulsory Sectors
On the 8th of November 2018, the British Educational Research Association (BERA) held a conference at Liverpool John Moores University on the theme of ‘Transitions: Challenges, Threats & Opportunities across the Post-compulsory Sectors‘. I (Alex Dunedin) was lucky enough to be invited to both take part in a panel discussion on the themes and to submit a paper. Read more…
Student as Consumer: A Sign of a Global Pathology
The notion of ‘student as consumer’ represents a sign of a global pathology of finance eating itself and everything else it encounters. The process of transforming the world into products to be consumed is presenting itself as a global pathology. It is a kind of ‘locust economy’ initiated through unaccountable agents and algorithm driven stockmarkets which move through the world consuming everything for profit before moving on. We are evermore set up and posed as consumers as managerial echelons normalise the surreal imposition of new semiotics on our identities as human beings. Read more…