This handbook entry examines the issue of housing in the Anthropocene. The issue of housing in th... more This handbook entry examines the issue of housing in the Anthropocene. The issue of housing in the Anthropocene involves many factors and aspects with respect to housing given the facts of climate change. To limit these factors and possible through lines for this entry, housing in the Anthropocene will be analyzed according to three dimensions to make sense of the future of housing needs alongside climate change: (1) Housing and human population. The fundamental questions with respect to housing in the Anthropocene involve human population, and the concurrent creation of more housing given increases in the human population in the future; (2) Housing and spatial requirements. Following on from the extra requirements for human housing given increases in human population, the critical issue of spatial requirements for this housing will be addressed; (3) Housing and net zero. The third section of this entry examines the possibility of housing in the Anthropocene reaching net zero and thus not contributing further to climate change. For the purposes of this entry, a time ceiling of 2050 will constrain each section, and limit the possibility of this entry becoming embroiled in overly speculative science fction.
Human civilization stands at an almost unimaginable precipice. The human past, leading up to toda... more Human civilization stands at an almost unimaginable precipice. The human past, leading up to today, has seen global civilization develop under the favourable conditions of the Holocene since 10000 BC. However, that is changing; we are now in what has been termed as the Anthropocene. Therefore, past development is no guide to the future. The Anthropocene, in Deleuze/Guattari terms, is the future rupturing the present. The past plays a part in this rupturing through the shared unconscious drives that power our global civilization onwards, and make changing course as a society so difficult, despite the science, the facts of climate change, as well good will, and all the rational cooperation we can muster with respect to ‘making do’ in the Anthropocene and green activist counter-narratives. This book suggests that the complex figuration of the Anthropocene should be reanalysed given 4 dimensions: 1) Tool-enhancement; 2) Carbon trail; 3) the phallocene; 4) Atomic-time. These dimensions will map out the unconscious drives that have created the Anthropocene. Adjacent to this mapping, a new mode of education and societal change is suggested. This mode of education and social change tackles key climate indicators and factors, such as degrowth, changing consciousness, a Green Utopia, building a critical model to realign current practices and globalisation. This book puts the philosophy of Deleuze/Guattari to work for the future and our collective existence on planet Earth.
This chapter sets out the principles of transversality in globalization and education that underp... more This chapter sets out the principles of transversality in globalization and education that underpin the contributions in this book. These principles are derived from the oeuvre of the French theorist and activist, Félix Guattari. For too long, Guattari has been overshadowed by his co-author, Gilles Deleuze, with whom he wrote four major works, as well as publishing at least a dozen or more on his own or with other authors. Furthermore, Guattari did not lead the life of an isolated scholar, or reclusive academic. Indeed, he traveled extensively to Brazil, Japan, Poland, and Mexico, for example, and made it plain that he wanted his theories to work practically and in real situations, to really make a difference. There is then a political, social, and applied edge to Guattari's transversality that makes it absolutely relevant to the many ways in which globalization impinges upon and can negatively transform educational practice today. Even though Guattari was writing between the 1960s and 1990s, it is the conviction of this book that the principles that can be derived from his concept of transversality are timely, critical, and in need of extensive exploration and elaboration in order to make inroads into the unfolding, contemporary global educational landscape. In sum, it is argued in this chapter that Guattari's transversality could be included in the central theoretical architecture of the field of globalization studies in education, due to the crucial link to activism which it provides.
The theme of this book is 'arts education as philosophy', and it is to teachers working in whatev... more The theme of this book is 'arts education as philosophy', and it is to teachers working in whatever capacity , from early childhood to tertiary level, to researchers, artists in the community, or those studying arts in education that this combined text is aimed. The art forms addressed include: art, dance, drama, music and film studies, with case studies from early years' practice to the conservatoire. This introduction outlines the two primary philosophical points of reference and how, in this arts education text, these philosophical positions are discussed by each author, together with an outline of each chapter.
December 20th, 2001. The city of Buenos Aires. A decade of unbridled financial speculation has dr... more December 20th, 2001. The city of Buenos Aires. A decade of unbridled financial speculation has dramatically come to an end. The nook in the stream follows the stories of three characters on that historic day through a documentary film script. Meanwhile, four individuals experience the end of the Argentine Menem years from the perspective of unlimited and accelerated nightlife. As a result, worlds collide through economic crisis. This is a story that has never been told before, that takes place over a 10 year time scale, and explores the reality of global capitalist collapse with devastating effect.
“Look at this — I think that I know what it means. We are not really in control of anything. There are forces passing through us that we can barely understand.”
Poised at the juncture of desire and abstraction, ecstasy and financial collapse, The Nook in the Stream tracks a slow arc of social, psychic, and economic dissolution through the red eyes of the Buenos Aires underworld. Amy Ireland
A kaleidoscopic journey through a subterranean world fast disappearing … Cole sends a report back from the edge … Simon O’Sullivan
A sensuous, metafictional ‘Fortunes of War’ for our times, following the currents of bodies, stories, events and memories that pooled and paused on a cataclysmic night in Argentina and – irrevocably altered – moved on . Maggie MacLure
The Nook in the Stream uncovers the oft obscured micro-political movements and desiring-flows characteristic of economic precarity in the twenty-first century, raising new questions for what it might mean to endure global capitalism and its necessary annihilations. Jessie Beier
Education is one of these frontline domains in which the effects of superdiversity cannot be dism... more Education is one of these frontline domains in which the effects of superdiversity cannot be dismissed, minimized or denied. The continuously increasing complexity of learning environments is raising critical issues at every level, from description over analysis to theoretical generalization, and this book is a first and fruitful attempt at charting these waters. This pioneering book will remain a key text for many years to come. Jan Bloomaert Professor of Language, Culture and Globalization and Director of the Babylon Center Tilburg University, the Netherlands.
This provocative collection works from two premises: that today there is superdiversity in our globalised world and related is a supercomplexity of theoretical and methodological approaches. The collection proffers multifarious challenges for educational theory, research and practice in working with, through and across these two premises. As such, Super Dimensions in Globalisation and Education is essential reading for all educational researchers, whatever their interests or location. Professor Bob Lingard The University of Queensland, Australia.
This is a highly imaginative book that stops ‘flat earth’ and convergence arguments dead in their tracks. Its genius is to bring super-complexity and super-diversity into a conversation with each other and with education, and in doing so shed light on the numerous and unexpected ways in which global processes are shaping education in revealing and compelling ways. Any scholar concerned with globalisation and education will find Super Dimensions in Globalisation and Education a’ must have’ on their reading list.
Professor Susan Robertson Director of the Centre for Globalisation, Education and Social Futures University of Bristol, UK.
This is an absorbing and compelling collection. It takes readers on a kaleidoscopic journey through various intricate expressions of the nexus between globalisation and education. And it offers multiple ways that such expressions can be thought and rethought. In transcending conventional categorisations it invites educators to do so too.
Professor Jane Kenway, Australian Professorial Fellow – Australian Research Council, Education Faculty, Monash University, Australia.
In his book, Capitalised Education: An Immanent Materialist Account of Kate Middleton, David R. C... more In his book, Capitalised Education: An Immanent Materialist Account of Kate Middleton, David R. Cole thoughtfully and thoroughly engages in an analysis that extends beyond the modern era to take into account a multiplicity of events and forces, which in their encounters produce social and cultural phenomena. Cole’s work is explicitly political as he engages in applied philosophy to elaborate upon the flows of capitalism and the emergence of Kate Middleton as a media object. The book, in its entirety, both is and is not about Kate Middleton. Through detailed and beautiful storytelling, Cole explores various historical plateaus (e.g., the death of Princess Diana, and monarchies of King George VI, Henry II and Lady Eleanor, the rise of industrialism, attitudes towards and about teaching) and describes the ways in which those plateaus are still at work, in some cases almost one thousand years later, to construct a capitalised education. Elaborating on the notion of capitalised education, Cole describes his project as a consideration of “the ways in which the factors analysed and revealed...come together and produce palpable social and cultural effects through Kate Middleton as media object” (p. 2). In his elaborations, Cole develops an immanent materialist analysis that is informed by the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s notions of assemblage, the rhizome, desire, and the Body without Organs, to name a few, though Cole does not get bogged down in explaining the theory itself. Rather, Cole embodies a Deleuzoguattarian ontology as he seeks to move beyond origins and causation and instead focuses on the at times more unfamiliar, but ever-proliferating intensities that impact the ways in which we emerge with that which we encounter, at times unconsciously. Students of philosophy, history, and education, and researchers who are interested in Deleuzoguattarian-influenced work will find Cole’s work both compelling and thoroughly enjoyable. ~ anonymous, Amazon site
The pomp and ceremony of a royal wedding might seem a strange anachronism in a world of global finance and cyber-capitalism. Yet, as David Cole demonstrates, the two are folded intricately into each other. Through an immanent materialist analysis that brings together key recent and historical moments or ‘plateaus’ in the emergence of capitalism, liberalism, and constitutional monarchy, and culminating in Kate Middleton’s 2011 marriage to Prince William, Cole’s wide ranging and provocative work reveals the complex and subtle ways in which capitalism’s decoding and deterritorialization go hand-in-hand with the continuation of social privileges and hierarchies. Along the way he speaks to the major political movements of the last century (liberalism, communism, fascism, empire, and decolonization), the globalization of media, the 2008 financial crisis, and more. Linking these to both established and emerging theories of radical political action, Cole traces the moments of rupture that might allow another politics to come to the fore. ~ Nathan Widder, Royal Holloway, University of London
Kate Middleton is an international celebrity, as well as a crucial figure in the biological, economic, and cultural reproduction of the British class system. In this book, David R. Cole offers us a multifaceted analysis of Middleton as "media object." Touching on topics as diverse as courtly love in medieval Europe and derivatives markets in contemporary finance, Capitalised Education traces a web of far-flung relationships that fatally lead us back to the absurdities of our collective fascination with the British Royal Family. ~ Steven Shaviro, Wayne State University
Cole has produced a masterful and critical evaluation of how the British Monarchy continues to assert and grow its influence in the 21st century. He significantly contributes to an almost muted discourse which critically explores how this influence is achieved and what is risked and gained in its attainment. The reader can’t but be left with a desire to question whether we should be comfortable with the process and effects this has on our behaviour, development and socialisation. ~ Roberto H. Parada, University of Western Sydney
Set in South America, this fictional account is part travelogue and part social, cultural and pol... more Set in South America, this fictional account is part travelogue and part social, cultural and political comment as seen through the eyes of three main characters - an open-minded British traveller, a Colombian-born farm turned city girl, and a Scottish-born traveller immersed in Eastern philosophy. Through brief, but intense encounters, these three attempt to understand the South American culture - and their own paths.
- Wendy O’Hanlon - The Noosa Journal
" David Cole's novel, A Mushroom of Glass, is evidence the literary novel is very alive. Those who seek the magic of language in their reading, will find much to enjoy here. Every traveller to South America should take this novel on the journey."
Roslyn Arnold
BOOK REVIEW A MUSHROOM OF GLASS David Cole
This is a superb first novel, a young man’s novel, compellingly fresh with each shift of feeling carefully detailed. It is utterly persuasive with a spiritual intensity which is stunning. It is engrossing, imaginative and humane with an intensity of excitement and sensuality which is powerful. The concept behind the novel is bold. Through the narrative with its intensive stories set in diverse political and geographical locations the novel persuasively explores time, love, loyalty and betrayal. It conveys a wonderful feel for a variety of locations where corruption is deep, compulsive and acutely observed. The plot is racy and mysterious, a compulsive read, difficult to put down.
Claire Hiller
.
JOHN MORROW’S PICK OF THE WEEK
A MUSHROOM OF GLASS
David R Cole
Sid Harta
David Cole, the author of this novel, lives in the beautiful state of Tasmania where he lectures on literacy and English education at the University of Tasmania. He bases his writing on life experiences and his travels throughout the world.
The author’s obvious knowledge of South America formed the basis of this novel which is set in Colombia. Not only is this story about love and desire but it transports the reader into the romantic and passionate world where rhythms of South American music beats wildly.
Music such as the salsa, reggae and mambo has seen the beginnings of many a love story, I would hazard to guess. There is something steamy and passionate about whirling bodies, long looks and swinging hips that certainly cause the blood to stir, even in a man who is referred to by his wife as ‘tradeinable’.
Panaiota is a flirty and sexy young woman who has beguiled the young man Sebastian. Meanwhile, a young European man is about to meet his destiny when he falls under her spell as well.
As the story develops, you soon become caught up in the myriad of rich characters described by the person telling the story, the young man who falls under not only Panaiota’s spell, but the spell of Colombia as well.
This novel is a sensuous one and I would probably not recommend it to my dear old granny or my mother-in-law as a ‘must read’ novel. They would probably become a little shocked at the sexual undertones in the novel.
However, if you, like myself, approach every novel with an open mind, you may find this novel very entertaining.
This novel also provides many insights into the daily life, countryside and lifestyles of the Colombian people…………..warts and all. More than any of the content, this was what made this novel particularly interesting for me.
“Hot Colombian nights, hot South American music and some hot characters star in this novel about love and relationships in Colombia”
CA Cranston:
Like Alice Through the Looking Glass, this novel gets curiouser and curiouser. Is this novel about a young woman’s journey from hell into a healing, alternative life-style? Or is she to be read as the embodiment of deeply embedded social practices, imprisoned by the constructions that others write upon her? This, Cole’s first novel, is post-modern playfulness set against the background of contemporary Colombia and the legacy of colonisation: Columbian, Indian, Indonesian, political and spiritual. His title ‘A Mushroom of Glass’ itself engages in textual colonizing: the literary portal that allows Lewis Carroll’s Alice to cross Through the Looking Glass into paradoxical situations and inverse logic are in Cole’s novel further complicated by the inclusion of shamanic portals (facilitated by the guru-figure Shean) along with the computer portals of the technological age which ensnare the central character, Panaiota, in a Q&A blueprint for dystopia.
The first half of the novel explores the external realities of the Colombian political situation specifically through speech-action pastiche filtered through the daily activities of Panaiota, a privileged young female lawyer--the glue in novel’s spine. But the nineteenth-century literary conventions that haunt about the novel (the narrator’s collusion with the reader; his reference to ‘our heroine’; the promise of romance and exoticism) evolve textually into post-modernity subjectivity in the second half of the novel. Here Panaiota comes unglued: here the fragmentary quality of glass provides the motif for exploring multiple perspectives, while the hallucinogenic property associated with mushrooms provides, metaphorically, the logic driving subjective exploration. Dream becomes the meta-narrative; dead philosophers argue absolute truths; unpublished writers defend their creativity to the deaf ears of the publishers.
The manipulating writer character/narrator, Gregory, though in love with his heroine, is no White Knight; and whereas Lewis Carroll’s Alice tells the White Knight ‘I don’t want to be anybody’s prisoner. I want to be a Queen’, Gregory’s heroine is imprisoned by social militants; Panaiota is transformed into the body politic, she becomes a writerly construct for national psychological distress and ancestral shame of Spanish colonization and Colombian oppression. Alice and the White Knight leave happily, together. Gregory, however, abandons his character to powerlessness and subservience. Perhaps the ending (Panaiota, earth-mother figure, wife number three, in Shean’s shamanistic community) is to be read as socially positive, or perhaps it is to be read as a failure of the postmodern social project in which gender and class is integrated and replaces the master narrative.
This dead letter presents an exploration of the immanent
materialism of Deleuze & Guattari as th... more This dead letter presents an exploration of the immanent
materialism of Deleuze & Guattari as theorised in A Thousand
Plateaus as a means to analysing everyday life. The evidence
consists of art, film and objects from life that relate to and
suggest the complex ways in which we are affected by traffic
jams. Reciprocating substrata of everyday life build upon the
unconscious, and show how the abstract turbulence of
everyday life forms eddies and flows that may be followed
and (re)presented. The immanent materialism of Deleuze &
Guattari is a philosophical construction that leads to the
formation of ‘plateaus’ as they were executed in A Thousand
Plateaus. The plateau of this dead letter is [21 October 2011:
The Petro-Citizen] and is populated with traffic jams, car
crashes, global environmental concerns and the psychological
and sociological contingencies that accompany the petrocitizen.
Connections between the strata that make up the
plateau of the petro-citizen will deliberately be left as openended
and speculative to show how the petro-citizen
functions as a flagrant construct in everyday life, which
includes the desire for petrol and explains the resulting
panpsychic petro-political landscape. The double-articulation
of the plateau depends upon the ways in which the petrocitizen
and petro-politics create reciprocating realms of
motivation and drive that tend towards contemporary
double-articulation, paradox and contradiction with respect
to the usages of oil. This double-articulation results in a
multiple chequered flag or illusionary global end-game that
designates the current human relationships with oil.
Mapping Multiple Literacies brings together the latest theory and research in the fields of liter... more Mapping Multiple Literacies brings together the latest theory and research in the fields of literacy studyand European philosophy, Multiple Literacies Theory (MLT) and the philosophical work of Gilles Deleuze. It frames the process of becoming literate as a fluidprocess involving multiple modes of presentation, and explains these processes in terms of making maps of our social lives and ways of doing things together.For Deleuze, language acquisition is a social activity of which we are a part, but only one part amongst many others.. Masny and Cole draw on Deleuze's thinking to expand the repertoires of literacy research and understanding. They outline how we can understand literacy as asocial activity and map the ways in which becoming literate may take hold and transform communities. The chapters in this book weave together theory, dataand practice to open up a creative new area of literacy studies and to provoke vigorous debate about the sociology of literacy.
There is immense power in language – so special care should be taken on how it is yielded when it... more There is immense power in language – so special care should be taken on how it is yielded when it concerns the education of children. The Power In/Of Language features a collection of original essays that address and analyze the various ways that language is utilized in contemporary education, revealing its deeply entrenched power relationships. Drawing on empirical study and theoretical insight, each author clearly shows how the language of education can – and must – be reassessed in contemporary contexts. Their insights enable readers to be aware of how language can harbour and conceal power concerns.
Teachers will benefit by gaining reflexivity and insight into their use of language in educational contexts, and students will gain a richer understanding of ways to study language in education and the major theoretical platforms from which to analyze language use. The essays also provide educators with a rigorous intellectual challenge to apply the ideas in their own practice. Thought-provoking and highly engaging, The Power In/Of Language offers illuminating insights into the ways that language shapes 21st-century pedagogy.
«At last, we have a book that not only attempts to chart the crucial relationship between educati... more «At last, we have a book that not only attempts to chart the crucial relationship between education and the crisis of economics, but one that
explores critically and insightfully what that crisis may tell us about how to proceed in both opening up new understandings of pedagogy,
education, politics, and charting a notion of hope that is as militant as it is realistic. We live at a crucial time, when the ethos of surviving has
replaced the possibility of imagining a decent life and the promises of a real democracy. The discourse of surviving for the authors in this book
does not suggest a retreat into cynicism or a life stripped of possibility. On the contrary, it suggests a new beginning, a new sense of struggle,
and a new sense of hope. 'Surviving Economic Crises through Education' puts education back into politics, and in doing so puts politics back
on a footing that makes individual and collective struggle possible again.» (Henry Giroux, Global Television Network Chair, English and Cultural
Studies, McMaster University)
«The recent huge hiccup of capitalism ('global financial crisis') and its continuing gurgles of pain have profound implications for education,
teacher training, and the role of knowledge for human betterment (given that claims to knowledge and expertise were no protection from the
cataclysm itself). This collection shows us why this is so, framing an imperative for rethinking education as a process of self-knowing and
empowerment in a period of enormous economic and ontological insecurity. David R. Cole has brought together a significant set of theorists
whose empirical evidence flows through to insights and indications of what is to be done. One hopes, as some of the authors propose, it is
the very depth of the crisis that may force the shedding of the most deeply entrenched (mis)beliefs about education, enabling thereby a new if
wobbly space for innovation and growth.» (Andrew Jakubowicz, Professor of Sociology, Director of the Institute of Cultural Diversity, University
of Technology, Sydney)
«In times of economic crisis politicians often present their policies by claiming that 'there is no alternative.' This book unmasks such claims by
providing critical readings of the politics of contemporary crisis talk and by presenting a range of generative educational responses that provide
real alternatives for educational thought and action. This is a timely and inspiring collection that affirms the crucial role of education in the
struggle for democracy in uncertain times.» (Gert Biesta, Professor of Education and Director of Research, School of Education & Laboratory for
Educational Theory, University of Stirling)
«This book represents a kaleidoscope of views on the roles of education in a world rapidly changing since the 2008 financial crisis and the
collapse of the Western world economies. Ideas mushroom from each chapter challenging the role of education in a capitalist society. A mustread
for those from various disciplines who care about education.» (Arnaud Chevalier, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Royal Holloway, University
of London)
"This book takes the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and applies it to educational practice. To unde... more "This book takes the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and applies it to educational practice. To understand how and why to do this, David R Cole puts forward the notion of educational life-forms in this writing, which are moving concepts based on Deleuzian principles. This book turns on and through the construction of the philosophy of life in education. The life-forms that will come about due to the philosophy of life in education rest on epiphanies, the virtual and affect. The author looks to infuse educational practice with the philosophy of life, though not through simple affirmation or a construction of counter metaphysics to representation in education. This book uses Deleuze for practical purposes and sets out to help teachers and students to think otherwise about the current praxis of education.
"With this book Educational Life-Forms which is an examination of the significance of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze for education, David R Cole proves himself to be one of the very small number of philosophers of education who has provided intelligent commentary of Deleuze's difficult corpus. Cole keenly appreciates the conceptual creativity of Deleuze especially in relation to the concepts of 'life forms' and 'body without organs' and effectively demonstrates its practical implications for education." - Michael A. Peters Professor, Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“David R Cole's, Educational Life-Forms: Deleuzian Teaching and Learning Practice is a profound, speculative work that offers both new ways of thinking about the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze (as a practical thinker with ideas that can be applied at the 'coal face', as it were) and new ways of thinking about teaching and learning. It engages with actual policy debates as they are played out in the complex reality of the classroom situation and brings to them a fresh perspective developed through a close reading of Deleuze. This is an exciting new work which will be rewarding reading for both Deleuzians and non-Deleuzians and is sure to win converts amongst the latter.” - Ian Buchanan, Editor Deleuze Studies Professor of Critical Studies, Dean of research in the Arts and Social Sciences University of Woolongong.
In this thoughtful and engaging book, David R Cole has given us an answer to the important question of how Deleuze's philosophy enters into the practice of education. Cole situates this philosophy within existing debates around teaching and learning not only through a very lucid account of Deleuze's work and current theory, but also through highly effective and often moving examples of practice. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Deleuze and education - James Williams Professor of European Philosophy, University of Dundee."
The realities of new technological and social conditions since the 1990s demand a new approach to... more The realities of new technological and social conditions since the 1990s demand a new approach to literacy teaching. Looking onward from the original statement of aims of the multiliteracies movement in 1996, this volume brings together top-quality scholarship and research that has embraced the notion and features new contributions by many of the originators of this approach to literacy.
Drawing on large research projects and empirical evidence, the authors explore practical and educational issues that relate to multiliteracies, such as assessment, pedagogy and curriculum. The viewpoint taken is that multiliteracies is a complementary socio-cultural approach to the new literacies that includes pedagogy and learning. The differences are addressed from a multiliteracies perspective – one that does not discount or undermine the new literacies, but shows new ways in which they are complementary.
Computers and the internet are transforming the way we work and communicate and the very notion of literacy itself. This volume offers frontline information and a vital update for those wishing to understand the evolution of multiliteracies and the current state of literacy theory in relation to it.
The essays in this book think through and with Deleuzian concepts in the educational field. The r... more The essays in this book think through and with Deleuzian concepts in the educational field. The resultant encounters between concepts such as multiplicity, becoming, habit and affect and Multiple Literacies Theory exemplify philosophically inspired and productive thinking.
Paul Patton, Professor of Philosophy, University of New South Wales
Taking one of the most exciting voices of the twentieth century beyond the range of philosophy and theory this edited volume provides a timely intervention into the problem of literacy. More than the simple application of Deleuze to the question of reading this stunningly bold and incisive collection of essays will make all of us think again about what it is to read and think. Masny and Cole have assembled an impressive range of contributions that will open up new avenues for research and thinking for years to come.
Claire Colebrook, Department of English Literature, University of Edinburgh
Education is now so littered with ‘literacies’ that the term seems almost disposable – an empty signifier – but at the same time obsessions with literacy testing have reduced much literacies research to tiresome debates about the pros and cons of this or that approach to reading instruction. Exploring more fertile territories, Multiple Literacies Theory stages a dozen exhilarating encounters between Gilles Deleuze’s philosophical concepts and each contributing author’s approach to representing and performing multiplicity in literacies research. Although I usually avoid metaphors that insinuate violence, I see Multiple Literacies Theory as an example of what the late Timothy Leary called a ‘transitional meaning-grenade thrown over the language barricades’ – a weapon of non-destruction that produces an explosion of possibilities for destabilising conventional wisdoms (including fashionable contemporary positions coded by terms such as ‘multiliteracies’ and ‘multimodal literacies’), and clearing the ground for new materialisations of ‘becoming literate’ in conditions of complexity, multiplicity and uncertainty.
Noel Gough, Foundation Professor of Outdoor and Environmental Education, Director (Learning, Teaching & International), Faculty of Education, La Trobe University, Australia.
"Recently, educators have begun to consider what is required in literacy curricula and best teach... more "Recently, educators have begun to consider what is required in literacy curricula and best teaching practices given the demands placed on the educator sector and on literacy in general.
Multiliteracies and Technology Enhanced Education: Social Practice and the Global Classroom features theoretical reflections and approaches on the use of multiliteracies and technologies in the improvement of education and social practices. Assisting educators at different teaching levels and fostering professional development and progress in this growing field, this innovative publication supports practitioners concerned with teaching at both a local and global level."
This paper locates three movements for the
future of education that will be mapped to
understand ... more This paper locates three movements for the future of education that will be mapped to understand how they impinge upon contemporary practice as disruptive yet potentially unifying forces; 1) The Anthropocene. The planetary boundaries hypothesis is one of the most proven scientific theories, yet contemporary education still fails to incorporate its most basic tenets into its operations - such as a move away from fossil fuel usage. This paper contends this is in part due to the continued domination of realist scientific epistemology backed by capital, which is not future or imaginary oriented, or able to incorporate deeper notions, such as enhanced connections to nature/ change. 2) Nomadism. Given the tenets of the crossed planetary boundaries, and how they will cut supply chains, disrupt agriculture and power supplies, and put pressure on the global economy, a move to small scale, self- -sufficient and moveable society is necessary. This paper will outline these combined elements for a future education as nomadism, which is differentiated from ‘the nomadic’, that we derive, for example, from Rosi Braidotti (2014). 3) Time. How long do we have left to implement these changes in educational practice? ‘Net zero for 2050’ is a common mantra that has been mobilized by governments and corporate PR departments to assuage citizens and clients that they are acting on climate change. This paper comprehends real time with respect to transformed and revolutionary educational practice.
International Journal of Body, Nature and Culture, 2023
This paper connects two disciplinary areas to create new knowledge in the fields of sustainable h... more This paper connects two disciplinary areas to create new knowledge in the fields of sustainable housing and the analysis of the human body in time. The first knowledge area is that of sustainable housing, and how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the built environment. Currently, the construction industry in developed countries brings together multiple elements in a build site, all of which may contribute to climate change, and produce complex structures that can be hard to maintain in terms of environmental matters. In contrast, 3D printed houses are simpler, have lower emissions, and involve a straightforward process of creating an entirely new house on site. Further, 3D printed houses can be made from the very earth where the house is to be built. The caveat for 3D printed houses, is that the load bearing capacities of the walls can limit the size of construction, even though the design possibilities for 3D printed houses are augmented. The accompanying and interlocking aspect of this paper is the argument through history that the human body responds to the dictates of desire, here termed as 'the phallocene'. The notion of the phallocene is derived from literature on the human body and desire that states that far from playing a merely irrational role in human life that is dominated by reason, desire creates worlds, and in the case of this paper, the world of the Anthropocene, a reality made by humans, and producing climate change. Hence, this paper conjoins two key concerns, arresting climate change, and understanding human behaviour through time as bodies.
Mobilise: Children's Rights Education through Creative Arts & New Technologies in Youth Justice Settings in NSW, Qld & Victoria, 2023
Mobilise emerged from 54 reasons NSW team's experience of working on a social cohesion project fu... more Mobilise emerged from 54 reasons NSW team's experience of working on a social cohesion project funded by Multicultural NSW COMPACT (2018 – 2020), which sought to encourage children and young people (C&YP), from culturally and linguistically diverse greater Western Sydney communities, to aspire for a society where Child Rights are understood, protected, and actively enjoyed by all. This iteration of Mobilise builds on the findings of the COMPACT program, augmented by consultation with, and input from, C&YP who were previously in contact with the Youth Justice system, to develop and deliver a Child Rights Education (CRE) program for C&YP in Youth Justice settings. The original plan was to deliver a series of eight CRE workshops from early April to September 2021 at six Youth Justice sites, including community and correctional settings, in NSW, Qld and Victoria. However, the global pandemic imposed a set of unprecedented challenges and obstacles, which impeded the implementation of Mobilise CRE program in its originally planned format. In particular, the resultant lengthy delays and frequently heightened institutional restrictions in Youth Justice settings, have meant that Mobilise CRE facilitators have had to accommodate to these new restrictions and working conditions, not least because the free movement in and out of Youth Detention Centres (YDCs) became compromised. Mobilise was finally launched in NSW and Qld in April 2022, but did not commence in Victoria until November 2022. Furthermore, as transition to remote data collection became necessary, the researchers were unable to conduct individual interviews with C&YP, as originally planned, to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences and perceptions of their rights and the impact that the CRE program had on them. Therefore, this report analyses salient themes in data captured through interviews with 54 reasons staff including, 12 CRE facilitators, a team leader, three regional managers and one practice development manager for Child Rights and Participation. Additionally, the analysis focused on drawings and paintings produced by C&YP during the CRE workshops, accompanied by written descriptions and explanations they gave for the artwork. Data show that the transient nature of C&YP in correctional settings, in particular, led to inconsistent and unpredictable attendance at the CRE workshops, in large part due to participants who took part in Mobilise being held in YDCs for less than 30 days on average before they were released and thus could not attend the entire CRE program. Conversely, in the only two community settings where Mobilise was delivered in NSW, the CRE facilitators successfully used bike and skateboard refurbishment as catalysts for gaining and sustaining the active and enthusiastic participation of C&YP in all the CRE workshops. While highlighting the challenges encountered by the CRE facilitators in their attempts to adhere to the fidelity of Mobilise program content, design, structure and delivery, the report identifies characteristics of good practice that were conducive to positive learning outcomes for C&YP in six Youth Justice settings, three in NSW, two in Qld and one in Victoria. Notably, the use of creative methodologies in community settings provided an excellent medium for delivering a successful CRE program, as it encouraged a communal, creative, relaxed, and open atmosphere for discussion and sharing, through and by which Child Rights were purposefully approached.
What is truly monstrous? This chapter attends to this question by examining Pierre Klossowski’s l... more What is truly monstrous? This chapter attends to this question by examining Pierre Klossowski’s last known work: The Immortal Adolescent. Rather than giving an easy answer to the question, the tableau-based play draws out through excruciatingly flighty and ephemeral scenes, desires and ideas that build on his earlier work, such as the discussion of Nietzsche’s eternal return. At the heart of the play is the thought that these exchanges, though lacking in substance or any of the usual literary devices, such as plot, character or, indeed, drama, present us with the monstrous reality of our existences. Klossowski manages to go beyond writing and envisages the very points at which we start to fall apart.
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Books by David R Cole
“Look at this — I think that I know what it means. We are not really in control of anything. There are forces passing through us that we can barely understand.”
Poised at the juncture of desire and abstraction, ecstasy and financial collapse, The Nook in the Stream tracks a slow arc of social, psychic, and economic dissolution through the red eyes of the Buenos Aires underworld.
Amy Ireland
A kaleidoscopic journey through a subterranean world fast disappearing … Cole sends a report back from the edge …
Simon O’Sullivan
A sensuous, metafictional ‘Fortunes of War’ for our times, following the currents of bodies, stories, events and memories that pooled and paused on a cataclysmic night in Argentina and – irrevocably altered – moved on .
Maggie MacLure
The Nook in the Stream uncovers the oft obscured micro-political movements and desiring-flows characteristic of economic precarity in the twenty-first century, raising new questions for what it might mean to endure global capitalism and its necessary annihilations.
Jessie Beier
This pioneering book will remain a key text for many years to come.
Jan Bloomaert
Professor of Language, Culture and Globalization and Director of the Babylon Center
Tilburg University, the Netherlands.
This provocative collection works from two premises: that today there is superdiversity in our globalised world and related is a supercomplexity of theoretical and methodological approaches. The collection proffers multifarious challenges for educational theory, research and practice in working with, through and across these two premises.
As such, Super Dimensions in Globalisation and Education is essential reading for all educational researchers, whatever their interests or location.
Professor Bob Lingard
The University of Queensland, Australia.
This is a highly imaginative book that stops ‘flat earth’ and convergence arguments dead in their tracks. Its genius is to bring super-complexity and super-diversity into a conversation with each other and with education, and in doing so shed light on the numerous and unexpected ways in which global processes are shaping education in revealing and compelling ways.
Any scholar concerned with globalisation and education will find Super Dimensions in Globalisation and Education a’ must have’ on their reading list.
Professor Susan Robertson
Director of the Centre for Globalisation, Education and Social Futures
University of Bristol, UK.
This is an absorbing and compelling collection. It takes readers on a kaleidoscopic journey through various intricate expressions of the nexus between globalisation and education. And it offers multiple ways that such expressions can be thought and rethought. In transcending conventional categorisations it invites educators to do so too.
Professor Jane Kenway,
Australian Professorial Fellow – Australian Research Council,
Education Faculty, Monash University, Australia.
The pomp and ceremony of a royal wedding might seem a strange anachronism in a world of global finance and cyber-capitalism. Yet, as David Cole demonstrates, the two are folded intricately into each other. Through an immanent materialist analysis that brings together key recent and historical moments or ‘plateaus’ in the emergence of capitalism, liberalism, and constitutional monarchy, and culminating in Kate Middleton’s 2011 marriage to Prince William, Cole’s wide ranging and provocative work reveals the complex and subtle ways in which capitalism’s decoding and deterritorialization go hand-in-hand with the continuation of social privileges and hierarchies. Along the way he speaks to the major political movements of the last century (liberalism, communism, fascism, empire, and decolonization), the globalization of media, the 2008 financial crisis, and more. Linking these to both established and emerging theories of radical political action, Cole traces the moments of rupture that might allow another politics to come to the fore. ~ Nathan Widder, Royal Holloway, University of London
Kate Middleton is an international celebrity, as well as a crucial figure in the biological, economic, and cultural reproduction of the British class system. In this book, David R. Cole offers us a multifaceted analysis of Middleton as "media object." Touching on topics as diverse as courtly love in medieval Europe and derivatives markets in contemporary finance, Capitalised Education traces a web of far-flung relationships that fatally lead us back to the absurdities of our collective fascination with the British Royal Family. ~ Steven Shaviro, Wayne State University
Cole has produced a masterful and critical evaluation of how the British Monarchy continues to assert and grow its influence in the 21st century. He significantly contributes to an almost muted discourse which critically explores how this influence is achieved and what is risked and gained in its attainment. The reader can’t but be left with a desire to question whether we should be comfortable with the process and effects this has on our behaviour, development and socialisation. ~ Roberto H. Parada, University of Western Sydney
- Wendy O’Hanlon - The Noosa Journal
" David Cole's novel, A Mushroom of Glass, is evidence the literary novel is very alive. Those who seek the magic of language in their reading, will find much to enjoy here. Every traveller to South America should take this novel on the journey."
Roslyn Arnold
BOOK REVIEW A MUSHROOM OF GLASS David Cole
This is a superb first novel, a young man’s novel, compellingly fresh with each shift of feeling carefully detailed. It is utterly persuasive with a spiritual intensity which is stunning. It is engrossing, imaginative and humane with an intensity of excitement and sensuality which is powerful. The concept behind the novel is bold. Through the narrative with its intensive stories set in diverse political and geographical locations the novel persuasively explores time, love, loyalty and betrayal. It conveys a wonderful feel for a variety of locations where corruption is deep, compulsive and acutely observed. The plot is racy and mysterious, a compulsive read, difficult to put down.
Claire Hiller
.
JOHN MORROW’S PICK OF THE WEEK
A MUSHROOM OF GLASS
David R Cole
Sid Harta
David Cole, the author of this novel, lives in the beautiful state of Tasmania where he lectures on literacy and English education at the University of Tasmania. He bases his writing on life experiences and his travels throughout the world.
The author’s obvious knowledge of South America formed the basis of this novel which is set in Colombia. Not only is this story about love and desire but it transports the reader into the romantic and passionate world where rhythms of South American music beats wildly.
Music such as the salsa, reggae and mambo has seen the beginnings of many a love story, I would hazard to guess. There is something steamy and passionate about whirling bodies, long looks and swinging hips that certainly cause the blood to stir, even in a man who is referred to by his wife as ‘tradeinable’.
Panaiota is a flirty and sexy young woman who has beguiled the young man Sebastian. Meanwhile, a young European man is about to meet his destiny when he falls under her spell as well.
As the story develops, you soon become caught up in the myriad of rich characters described by the person telling the story, the young man who falls under not only Panaiota’s spell, but the spell of Colombia as well.
This novel is a sensuous one and I would probably not recommend it to my dear old granny or my mother-in-law as a ‘must read’ novel. They would probably become a little shocked at the sexual undertones in the novel.
However, if you, like myself, approach every novel with an open mind, you may find this novel very entertaining.
This novel also provides many insights into the daily life, countryside and lifestyles of the Colombian people…………..warts and all. More than any of the content, this was what made this novel particularly interesting for me.
“Hot Colombian nights, hot South American music and some hot characters star in this novel about love and relationships in Colombia”
CA Cranston:
Like Alice Through the Looking Glass, this novel gets curiouser and curiouser. Is this novel about a young woman’s journey from hell into a healing, alternative life-style? Or is she to be read as the embodiment of deeply embedded social practices, imprisoned by the constructions that others write upon her? This, Cole’s first novel, is post-modern playfulness set against the background of contemporary Colombia and the legacy of colonisation: Columbian, Indian, Indonesian, political and spiritual. His title ‘A Mushroom of Glass’ itself engages in textual colonizing: the literary portal that allows Lewis Carroll’s Alice to cross Through the Looking Glass into paradoxical situations and inverse logic are in Cole’s novel further complicated by the inclusion of shamanic portals (facilitated by the guru-figure Shean) along with the computer portals of the technological age which ensnare the central character, Panaiota, in a Q&A blueprint for dystopia.
The first half of the novel explores the external realities of the Colombian political situation specifically through speech-action pastiche filtered through the daily activities of Panaiota, a privileged young female lawyer--the glue in novel’s spine. But the nineteenth-century literary conventions that haunt about the novel (the narrator’s collusion with the reader; his reference to ‘our heroine’; the promise of romance and exoticism) evolve textually into post-modernity subjectivity in the second half of the novel. Here Panaiota comes unglued: here the fragmentary quality of glass provides the motif for exploring multiple perspectives, while the hallucinogenic property associated with mushrooms provides, metaphorically, the logic driving subjective exploration. Dream becomes the meta-narrative; dead philosophers argue absolute truths; unpublished writers defend their creativity to the deaf ears of the publishers.
The manipulating writer character/narrator, Gregory, though in love with his heroine, is no White Knight; and whereas Lewis Carroll’s Alice tells the White Knight ‘I don’t want to be anybody’s prisoner. I want to be a Queen’, Gregory’s heroine is imprisoned by social militants; Panaiota is transformed into the body politic, she becomes a writerly construct for national psychological distress and ancestral shame of Spanish colonization and Colombian oppression. Alice and the White Knight leave happily, together. Gregory, however, abandons his character to powerlessness and subservience. Perhaps the ending (Panaiota, earth-mother figure, wife number three, in Shean’s shamanistic community) is to be read as socially positive, or perhaps it is to be read as a failure of the postmodern social project in which gender and class is integrated and replaces the master narrative.
materialism of Deleuze & Guattari as theorised in A Thousand
Plateaus as a means to analysing everyday life. The evidence
consists of art, film and objects from life that relate to and
suggest the complex ways in which we are affected by traffic
jams. Reciprocating substrata of everyday life build upon the
unconscious, and show how the abstract turbulence of
everyday life forms eddies and flows that may be followed
and (re)presented. The immanent materialism of Deleuze &
Guattari is a philosophical construction that leads to the
formation of ‘plateaus’ as they were executed in A Thousand
Plateaus. The plateau of this dead letter is [21 October 2011:
The Petro-Citizen] and is populated with traffic jams, car
crashes, global environmental concerns and the psychological
and sociological contingencies that accompany the petrocitizen.
Connections between the strata that make up the
plateau of the petro-citizen will deliberately be left as openended
and speculative to show how the petro-citizen
functions as a flagrant construct in everyday life, which
includes the desire for petrol and explains the resulting
panpsychic petro-political landscape. The double-articulation
of the plateau depends upon the ways in which the petrocitizen
and petro-politics create reciprocating realms of
motivation and drive that tend towards contemporary
double-articulation, paradox and contradiction with respect
to the usages of oil. This double-articulation results in a
multiple chequered flag or illusionary global end-game that
designates the current human relationships with oil.
Teachers will benefit by gaining reflexivity and insight into their use of language in educational contexts, and students will gain a richer understanding of ways to study language in education and the major theoretical platforms from which to analyze language use. The essays also provide educators with a rigorous intellectual challenge to apply the ideas in their own practice. Thought-provoking and highly engaging, The Power In/Of Language offers illuminating insights into the ways that language shapes 21st-century pedagogy.
explores critically and insightfully what that crisis may tell us about how to proceed in both opening up new understandings of pedagogy,
education, politics, and charting a notion of hope that is as militant as it is realistic. We live at a crucial time, when the ethos of surviving has
replaced the possibility of imagining a decent life and the promises of a real democracy. The discourse of surviving for the authors in this book
does not suggest a retreat into cynicism or a life stripped of possibility. On the contrary, it suggests a new beginning, a new sense of struggle,
and a new sense of hope. 'Surviving Economic Crises through Education' puts education back into politics, and in doing so puts politics back
on a footing that makes individual and collective struggle possible again.» (Henry Giroux, Global Television Network Chair, English and Cultural
Studies, McMaster University)
«The recent huge hiccup of capitalism ('global financial crisis') and its continuing gurgles of pain have profound implications for education,
teacher training, and the role of knowledge for human betterment (given that claims to knowledge and expertise were no protection from the
cataclysm itself). This collection shows us why this is so, framing an imperative for rethinking education as a process of self-knowing and
empowerment in a period of enormous economic and ontological insecurity. David R. Cole has brought together a significant set of theorists
whose empirical evidence flows through to insights and indications of what is to be done. One hopes, as some of the authors propose, it is
the very depth of the crisis that may force the shedding of the most deeply entrenched (mis)beliefs about education, enabling thereby a new if
wobbly space for innovation and growth.» (Andrew Jakubowicz, Professor of Sociology, Director of the Institute of Cultural Diversity, University
of Technology, Sydney)
«In times of economic crisis politicians often present their policies by claiming that 'there is no alternative.' This book unmasks such claims by
providing critical readings of the politics of contemporary crisis talk and by presenting a range of generative educational responses that provide
real alternatives for educational thought and action. This is a timely and inspiring collection that affirms the crucial role of education in the
struggle for democracy in uncertain times.» (Gert Biesta, Professor of Education and Director of Research, School of Education & Laboratory for
Educational Theory, University of Stirling)
«This book represents a kaleidoscope of views on the roles of education in a world rapidly changing since the 2008 financial crisis and the
collapse of the Western world economies. Ideas mushroom from each chapter challenging the role of education in a capitalist society. A mustread
for those from various disciplines who care about education.» (Arnaud Chevalier, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Royal Holloway, University
of London)
"With this book Educational Life-Forms which is an examination of the significance of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze for education, David R Cole proves himself to be one of the very small number of philosophers of education who has provided intelligent commentary of Deleuze's difficult corpus. Cole keenly appreciates the conceptual creativity of Deleuze especially in relation to the concepts of 'life forms' and 'body without organs' and effectively demonstrates its practical implications for education." - Michael A. Peters Professor, Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“David R Cole's, Educational Life-Forms: Deleuzian Teaching and Learning Practice is a profound, speculative work that offers both new ways of thinking about the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze (as a practical thinker with ideas that can be applied at the 'coal face', as it were) and new ways of thinking about teaching and learning. It engages with actual policy debates as they are played out in the complex reality of the classroom situation and brings to them a fresh perspective developed through a close reading of Deleuze. This is an exciting new work which will be rewarding reading for both Deleuzians and non-Deleuzians and is sure to win converts amongst the latter.” - Ian Buchanan, Editor Deleuze Studies Professor of Critical Studies, Dean of research in the Arts and Social Sciences University of Woolongong.
In this thoughtful and engaging book, David R Cole has given us an answer to the important question of how Deleuze's philosophy enters into the practice of education. Cole situates this philosophy within existing debates around teaching and learning not only through a very lucid account of Deleuze's work and current theory, but also through highly effective and often moving examples of practice. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Deleuze and education - James Williams Professor of European Philosophy, University of Dundee."
Drawing on large research projects and empirical evidence, the authors explore practical and educational issues that relate to multiliteracies, such as assessment, pedagogy and curriculum. The viewpoint taken is that multiliteracies is a complementary socio-cultural approach to the new literacies that includes pedagogy and learning. The differences are addressed from a multiliteracies perspective – one that does not discount or undermine the new literacies, but shows new ways in which they are complementary.
Computers and the internet are transforming the way we work and communicate and the very notion of literacy itself. This volume offers frontline information and a vital update for those wishing to understand the evolution of multiliteracies and the current state of literacy theory in relation to it.
Paul Patton, Professor of Philosophy, University of New South Wales
Taking one of the most exciting voices of the twentieth century beyond the range of philosophy and theory this edited volume provides a timely intervention into the problem of literacy. More than the simple application of Deleuze to the question of reading this stunningly bold and incisive collection of essays will make all of us think again about what it is to read and think. Masny and Cole have assembled an impressive range of contributions that will open up new avenues for research and thinking for years to come.
Claire Colebrook, Department of English Literature, University of Edinburgh
Education is now so littered with ‘literacies’ that the term seems almost disposable – an empty signifier – but at the same time obsessions with literacy testing have reduced much literacies research to tiresome debates about the pros and cons of this or that approach to reading instruction. Exploring more fertile territories, Multiple Literacies Theory stages a dozen exhilarating encounters between Gilles Deleuze’s philosophical concepts and each contributing author’s approach to representing and performing multiplicity in literacies research. Although I usually avoid metaphors that insinuate violence, I see Multiple Literacies Theory as an example of what the late Timothy Leary called a ‘transitional meaning-grenade thrown over the language barricades’ – a weapon of non-destruction that produces an explosion of possibilities for destabilising conventional wisdoms (including fashionable contemporary positions coded by terms such as ‘multiliteracies’ and ‘multimodal literacies’), and clearing the ground for new materialisations of ‘becoming literate’ in conditions of complexity, multiplicity and uncertainty.
Noel Gough, Foundation Professor of Outdoor and Environmental Education, Director (Learning, Teaching & International), Faculty of Education, La Trobe University, Australia.
Multiliteracies and Technology Enhanced Education: Social Practice and the Global Classroom features theoretical reflections and approaches on the use of multiliteracies and technologies in the improvement of education and social practices. Assisting educators at different teaching levels and fostering professional development and progress in this growing field, this innovative publication supports practitioners concerned with teaching at both a local and global level."
Papers by David R Cole
future of education that will be mapped to
understand how they impinge upon contemporary
practice as disruptive yet potentially
unifying forces; 1) The Anthropocene. The
planetary boundaries hypothesis is one of the
most proven scientific theories, yet contemporary
education still fails to incorporate its
most basic tenets into its operations - such as
a move away from fossil fuel usage. This paper
contends this is in part due to the continued
domination of realist scientific epistemology
backed by capital, which is not future or imaginary
oriented, or able to incorporate deeper
notions, such as enhanced connections to nature/
change. 2) Nomadism. Given the tenets
of the crossed planetary boundaries, and how
they will cut supply chains, disrupt agriculture
and power supplies, and put pressure on the
global economy, a move to small scale, self-
-sufficient and moveable society is necessary.
This paper will outline these combined elements
for a future education as nomadism,
which is differentiated from ‘the nomadic’, that
we derive, for example, from Rosi Braidotti
(2014). 3) Time. How long do we have left to
implement these changes in educational practice?
‘Net zero for 2050’ is a common mantra
that has been mobilized by governments and
corporate PR departments to assuage citizens
and clients that they are acting on climate
change. This paper comprehends real time
with respect to transformed and revolutionary
educational practice.