The Transformation of Antonio Gramsci: A Study in Retrieval

Oscar Pemantle

Director of Institute for Active Learning in California, U.S. oscar.pemantle@gmail.com

Abstract

This paper is to present the essential ideas of Anotonio Gramsci about active or creative learning. When contemplating Gramsci’s views “On Education” an intriguing puzzle confronts the educator. In the literature on the topic Gramsci emerges as the hero with two faces, two heads facing in precisely opposite directions. Of the partisans commanding the two thought worlds, four can be singled out for mention here: Quentin Hoare, Henry Giroux, Paulo Friere, and E.D. Hirsch. Many of major scholars have misunderstood Gramsci because they seem to be biased from their own cultural backgrounds. The solution is quite simple. It is a question of techne, not of ideology. It follows that teaching of this form is always value neutral. It cannot have any purely ideological axe to grind for that is the very nature of a techne.

Keywords:

Antonio Gramsci, education, traditionalist, progressivist, active school, creative school, culture

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Biographical Note

Oscar Pemantle is the director of Institute for Active Learning in California, U.S. He had studied Political Science and taught at U.C. Berkeley. He founded and directed the once prestigeous Black Pine Circle School, organized a statewide conference of teachers and administrators in Lincoln, Nebraska with Governor Bob Kerrey, and published numerous, well-received articles on education. oscar.pemantle@gmail.com