We use themes to guide our enquiry.
We meet on the first Tuesday of the month, and someone from the collective leads us on a journey of reflection and consideration that serves to inspire that month’s ideas and work.
All our sessions start at 7pm. To sign up and access the Zoom link please email beyondeducation@riseup.net
DJ Technology as an Educational Tool
Tuesday 7th December – 7pm
How does music shape the urban soundscape? How is DJing a deep listening practice? Can we learn new ways of relating to the urban environment through listening & playing?
Jake will introduce the current phase of his PhD research that is looking at DJ technology as an educational tool. It is informed by Colin Ward’s concept of Streetwork, Ultra-red’s sonic activism, Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening, the problematic legacies of ’soundscape composition’ and his own DJ practice. He will talk through some of these ideas, outline the proposed project and discuss some (very) early findings. There will also be a short listening workshop.
Jake cut his teeth playing live electronics with the Warp-signed avant-jazz band Red Snapper, as well as creating music and sound design for major TV shows, high-profile ad campaigns and the occasional well-received techno record. He currently works as a composer, researcher, improviser and educator with particular interest in radical creative applications of digital DJ technology. He regularly performs solo and with a number of different international audio visual and live art collaborations (Mutek/EM15, Sonar, National Space Centre, The Lowry, NIME, Open Out Tromsø, Drill Festival).
He currently lectures on BA and MA programmes in Creative Music Production at ICMP, London and is undertaking a practice-based PhD in Music Composition at Birmingham University.
Image by: @PMVmat on Unsplash
Project Beyond Education
Tuesday 16th November 7 -8pm
When we first came together at the start of 2021 to discuss the possibilities of what we wanted Beyond Education to achieve for our community and wider audiences, we set ourselves some lofty goals.
We wanted to foster a community that allowed people to see beyond education as we understand and experience it now and offer a space where we can challenge, critique and celebrate what is happening in the sector.
In this months session, we want to make sure we’re still on the right track to achieving this in a way that’s dialogically shaped by people who’ve engaged with the project in one way or another. So join us as we reflect on nearly a year of Beyond Education.
Image by: @sidsaxena on Unsplash
A Dialogue of ‘Keywords’
Tuesday 5th October 2021
In this session, we begin a series of conversations about ‘keywords’ related to education. Raymond’s Williams’ text Keywords: A Vocabulary of Society and Culture, offers what we might call an alternative dictionary. He takes everyday words and gives them historical and cultural context, as well as critical and conceptual meaning. Inspired by this text, the collective is committed to creating critical dialogues around a range of key terms in education. This week we will discuss four ‘keywords’ suggested by attendees of previous sessions: ‘adult education’, ‘pedagogy’, ‘agency’, and ‘entrepreneurialism’. Please join us, all welcome, no experience or ‘expertise’ required!
This is an ongoing series that will form a glossary for site readers, suggestions for new ‘keywords’ are also welcome!
The State Won’t Save Us: mutual aid approaches in education
Monday 6th September 2021
In Katie’s session, we explore the possibilities of mutual aid within education, highlighting ways the education community can thrive against ongoing and immediate disasters. Drawing particularly on examples of mutual aid that have taken place during the pandemic, we will explore how these acts of reciprocal solidarity could further more egalitarian practices in education and beyond, enabling us to better support both our geographic and educational communities.
State of the Art: The possibilities of a critical art education
Monday 2nd August 2021
During this event, the possibilities of a critical art education are explored by unpacking the tendency to confine art to a marginal role in the curriculum, and curriculum development, and examining the ambivalent status of art in education. While reflecting on the state of art in schools it is also possible to question the gradual (and persistent) impoverishment of cultures of creativity and autonomy in teacher education.
Education as a Way of Life
Monday 5th July 2021
Dave’s session will discuss the social and educational thought of John Dewey, as outlined in his recent book The Method of Democracy: John Dewey’s Theory of Collective Intelligence (Peter Lang, 2020). Looking in particular at the idea that all inquiry is a striving for truth in a chaotic and contradictory world, Dave will argue that Dewey’s work allows us to examine extra-institutional forms of education in a new light, for example the new practices of ‘research’ in alt-right and conspiracy theory online communities, and also Marxist and feminist theories of ‘consciousness raising’.
Philosophy for Children
Monday 7th June 2021
P4C stands for ‘Philosophy for Children, Colleges and Communities’ and is a method of hosting structured discussions which aim to build a ‘community of enquiry’ and to encourage participants to be able to be more creative, collaborative, caring and critical. The session will teach you how to run a session by taking part in one. In short: students are shown a stimulus, they write questions coming from the issues raised, they vote on which question to discuss and then lead the enquiry themselves
Anti-fascist Education
Monday 10th May 2021
Kay’s session will introduce some provocations around anti-fascist pedagogical practice. Rather than seeking definitions or getting caught up in semantics, we will explore how mapping ‘fascist patterns’ (Snyder, 2021) can help us and our students to critically analyse current discourse around education and challenge our own relationship with power.
2010 and the Student Protests
Monday 12th April 2021
Reflections on the 2010 student protests hosted by Sol. This is a chance to reflect on how 2010 has been discussed in policy circles in HE but also to think about how those demonstrations compare to recent student and youth movements around BLM, Climate Strikes, A-level results and rent strikes.
The Hopeless University
Monday 1st March 2021
In this hopeless talk, Richard will talk about themes from his new book, The Hopeless University: Intellectual Work at the end of the End of History, such as the re-emergence of engagement with ideas of hope, and their relationship to progressive politics and horizons of educational possibility.