Page 135 - Looking_after_school

Outro

School studies and the grammar of school

If the previous articulations make sense and could pass the test of
our concerns with education, the new generation and the world, it
is worth exploring the further elaboration of school studies and its
focus on the grammar of school. Such a grammar is not to be con-
fused with the ‘phenomenology of the school’ as sketched by Illich
(1970), which, even if thought-provoking, is mainly about recognising
in it the characteristics of a religious institution to the point that there
seems to be no difference anymore. It is also not to be confused with
the ‘grammar of schooling’ as elaborated by Tyack and Tobin (1994)
which is actually a theory (cynically) explaining why institutional ele-
ments in the school organisation resist innovation and reform. Their
concern is not ‘making school’, but the history of a social practice
from the viewpoint of continuity and the resistance to change. Their
ambition is theory development and explanation from the outside, not
the articulation of scholastic learning from the inside, and their use
of grammar is focusing on what is defined instead of the movement
of undefining in the act of grammatisation. The grammar of school
we have in mind focuses on the gestures, objects, and arrangements
that have been invented to make school, as well as the experiences
and assumptions enacted in scholastic learning. Perhaps elaborating
10
on the grammar of school in school studies might provide everyone
who is concerned about learning (under the condition of freedom
and equality) the scholastic literacy that is required to – as undefined
work - invent and re-invent the school (anew). In conclusion, we want
to put forward two issues that could be of importance in articulating
such a grammar of school.

The first issue concerns the challenge to find a way to articulate the
scholastic experience itself. Indeed, instead of narrating about the
(good, bad, great, sad) experiences of learning at school, there is the
challenge to find a pedagogic language that gives voice to the experi-

10 For an elaboration, see also the different contributions in: Larrosa(2017)
135