THE recent publication of “Lessons in organising: What trade unionists can learn from the war on teachers” raises very many questions about the politics of education. 

How does a Marxist analysis help us to understand the underlying issues: education for “domestication” or education for social transformation? Learning that prepares people to take their allotted places within the existing social order or learning that equips people to engage in collective struggles for progressive social change?  And how can transformative approaches to learning be developed most effectively? 

These questions are just as relevant to debates about trade union and community education, in the current context.