Edu4 ～最初の手紙～

Edu4は一通の手紙から始まった。
"Creating a united front of education scholars"というタイトルで、何人かの教育学者達に送られたその呼びかけのメッセージを、ここで紹介しておきたい。



Dear friends and colleagues,

We hope this message finds you well. Today, we want to extend to you all an invitation to support a new project that aims to unite education scholars against injustices in the field of education. This project is greatly inspired by Econ4, which advocates “Economists 4 people, 4 the planet, 4 the future.” Econ4 is run and supported by economists all over the world united against market fundamentalism’s ideological and political cleansing that is happening in the field of economics and policymaking.

Similarly, under the banner of “Educators 4 children, 4 society, 4 the future,” we want to bring together education scholars who oppose today’s “education reforms” that embrace corporate ideologies and advance privatization while undermining public education. We believe it is important to let the public know that many current education policies, both federal and local, largely discount educational research, for example. At the same time, we believe it is necessary to put pressures on our political leaders by showing that education scholars are now united against corporate education policies.

This project was first conceived as a part of Social Imagination Projects that were initiated by
individuals who have been inspired by Maxine Greene and her visionary educational philosophy. In her Teacher as Stranger (1973), Maxine emphasizes the importance of teaching, learning and questioning with wide-awakeness, and she urges us “to develop a fundamental project, to go beyond the situations one confronts and refuse reality as given in the name of a reality to be produced” (p. 7). Hardly an illusion or an escape from “reality” into fantasy, Maxine teaches us that social imagination begins with identifying troubles and suffering in our deficient society. She argues that it is urgent to create a public space where educators, who are discontented and even outraged with our current education systems, can find each other to embark on imaginative initiatives for educational change. “I don’t want to save the world,” says Maxine, “I want to start a conversation.” In a large sense, this initiative is an invitation to a conversation she has begun.

There is so much to discuss, and so much to do. Finally, if you’re an educator and would like to add your name to the attached statement, please send us an email by clicking here. Also, we would appreciate it if you could circulate this among other educators who might be interested in joining this initiative.

Sincerely,


Edu4 Project Team



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