Chris Searle

I have been reading about the 'left wing' teaching of Chris Searle (pictured) in the 1970s. This is fascinating work. His approach has been said to be 'critical literacy as cultural action' by Lankshear and Knobel (2009). From what I have read of his work, Searle encourages the children in his care to draw on class instincts and consciousness to create the subjects and contexts for their learning to read and write. He also insists on the importance of the children having optimal possibilities to become proficient speakers, readers and writers of standard English to be able the engage effectively in critique of and intervention in issues and problems which effect those around them. To have:

'an understanding of basic grammar and sentence analysis, the power to spell correctly and to use punctuation effectively, to know and be able to construct myriad figures of speech, and be able to write sequentially and coolly while maintaining creative strength and imaginative energy' (1998:75)

This approach strikes me as a rationale close to that of Gramsci and Freire in this move to enable children to grasp the skills and knowledge that they argue is presently in the hands of the powerful or ruling class. I am given the feeling that Searle considers some forms of literacy and 'secondary discourse' (Gee 2007), and the texts associated with them, to have an almost autonomous value and power.

Lankshear and Knobel (2009) insists on calling the uses that Searle encourages the children to make of the literacy being taught, as 'cultural action' and presents his work within a postmodern analysis of contemporary education policy and practice. However, Searle's approach appears to me to be more settled around a particular political meta narrative - namely Marxism. The 'cultural action' that Searle is said to advocate seems much more to be 'class action'.