Social movements and pedagogical renewal in the twentieth century: thoughts, practices, and resistances

Abstract

In the last few decades, an interpretative shift has emerged regarding the concept of social movements. As it currently appears, a crucial sign has been the progressive abandonment by the literature of the singular «social movement» because it meant a one-sided point of view that only considered a schematic focus on the most explicit dimensions of the classic notion of class struggle. Since the 1960s, the polysemy of the «social movements» category has embraced and incorporated other aspects of the reality labelled under the powerfully meaning word «conflict». The contemporary epistemic and political recognition of the intersectionality among social clashes (gender, age, class, race, and other angles) has enriched research agendas in social history and the history of education. A recent general overview of the field underlines the importance of these fields for the development of current research. For instance, regarding gender, Lucy E. Bayley and Karen Graves (2019, p.357) point out that «gendered analysis has enacted a radical intervention in the production of knowledge in educational history in recent decades through highlining women’s roles and experiences, exploring gendered educational forces, institutions, practices and policies and expanding the theories and methodologies through which the field produces meaning». A similar impact has been produced in the history of education as scholars follow ethnics or decolonial points of view.