Public Pedagogy of Subcultures

Author(s):

Katerina Lojdova(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES G11, Students, Teachers and Pedagogy in Education

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-10

09:00-10:30

Room:

A-206

Chair:

Martin Goy

Contribution

The term public pedagogy is a theoretical concept to focus on processes and sites of education beyond formal schooling. It is mostly connected with popular culture and everyday life, informal institutions and public spaces and social activism. The theoretical framework of public pedagogy is based in critical social theory (e.g. Frankfurt school) and critical pedagogy (e.g. Freire, 2000, 2005, Giroux, 1998, 2008, Girouw, Myrsiades, 2001).

The chosen group to be investigated in the process of public pedagogy is subculture of environmental activists – freegans. The research question was „How does the process of public pedagogy take place within the freegans subculture?" The selected methodological approach is qualitative research, which is described below.

The chosen nonformal group is defined as a subculture, because it is a culture within a broker mainstream culture, with its own separate values, practices, and beliefs (Hebdige, 1979). The values of freegans are strongly enviromental, connected with animals-rights, ecology and nonconsumerism. Practices include environmental actvism (happenings, meetings, movies for public about animals rights ect.) and collective practice such as cooking vegan meal or obtaining recycled articles.

The goal of the study is to conceptualize public pedagogy of the freegan subculture. The study of public pedagogy of freegans consits of goals of public pedagogy, methods of public pedagogy (the way of acting in public space such as demonstrations, happenings, but also using online media) and target audience of their public pedagogy. All these components are described in detail, structured and interpreted. They represent comprehensive insight into public pedagogy of freegan subculture based on empirical data.

Method

The research strategy is a qualitative research. Qualitative researchers are interested in understanding how people interpret their experiences, how they construct their worlds and what meaning they atribute to their experiences (Merriam, 2009). The research goal was to find out components and forms of public pedagogy of freegan subculture. The research design is ethnography. There were several data collecting methods. First of them was semi-structured interviews. Interviews were conducted with 16 people complied with three criteria: defining themself as freegans, to have freegan practices and interaction with another freegans. The sample was constructed by snowball technique. It is non-probability sampling technique including asking researched subjects to nominate another person with the same trait. All interviews were recorded and transcribed word by word. Second method was participant observation. The researcher spent more than a year in freegan subculture, visiting their activities in public and private sphere. Data gathering method was making field notes. Participant observation is basic to carrying out naturalistic research. Third method analysed public pedagogy of subculture in the online environment. It was content analysys of freegans websites, blogs a social media. Data analysys was based on open coding (Strauss, Corbin, 1998).

Expected Outcomes

The outcomes describe three main cathegories arised form the research. The paper is divided into three parts according to these cathegories. First cathegory describes goals of public pedagogy of freegans. Goals are divided into three levels. The basic one is the most important and the most general, covering another specific goals. The basic goal is non-consumerism, medium one goal is veganism and on the top of the goals of the public pedagogy of subculture is recycling and using carbage. The second part categorizes methods of public pedagogy of freegan subculture. Methods are divided into two spaces: public space and media space. Public space is more traditional one and consists of methods such as happenings, demonstration or workshops about vegan food. Media space is the new one very important for public pedagogy. Media space consists of using web sites, social networks or blogs to fulfill the goals of public pedagogy of subculture. The final part defines target audience of public pedagogy of the subculture. It is public, but also more specific parts of the public such as community, small social group or supporting public (supports some aspects of subculture, e.g. veganism) and potentional members of subculture.

References

FREIRE, Paulo. Pedagogy of the oppressed. 30th anniversary ed. New York: Continuum, c2000, 183 p. ISBN 08-264-1276-9. FREIRE, Paulo. Education for critical consciousness. New York: Continuum, 2005, xiii, 146 p. ISBN 08-264-7795-X. HEBDIGE, Dick. Subculture: the meaning of style. London: Routledge, c1979, viii, 195 s. ISBN 0415039495. GIROUX, Henry A. Theory and resistance in education: towards a pedagogy fortheopposition. Rev. and expandeded. Westport, Conn.: Bergin, 2001, vii, 280 p. ISBN 08-978-9796-X. GIROUX, Henry A. Disturbing pleasures: learning popular culture. New York: Routledge, 1994, xi, 202 p. ISBN 04-159-0901-5. GIROUX, Henry A. Hollywood Film as Public Pedagogy: Education in the Crossfire. Afterimage. 2008, roč. 35, č. 5, s. 7-13. ISSN 03007472. GIROUX, Henry A a Kostas MYRSIADES. Beyond the corporate university: culture and pedagogy in the new millennium. Lanham, Md.: Rowman, c2001, ix, 350 p. ISBN 07-425-1048 MERRIAM, Sharan B. Qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, c2009, xvi, 304 s. ISBN 9780470283547. STRAUSS, Anselm a Juliet M CORBIN. Basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, c1998, xiii, 312 s. ISBN 0803959397.

Author Information

Katerina Lojdova (presenting / submitting)

Masaryk University

Brno

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