Educating for Action

Roger Hopkins has a degree and teaching diploma from the University of Wales and has taught in colleges of further education, technical and higher education. He has published widely on social action, community development and adult education.

• Introduction1 What Are You? The Case of Cabo Verdeans1 Social Action and Its Threatened Future1 Social Action Characteristics2 Affective Intelligence, Social Action and Social Movements3 Social Action under Attack4 Neo Liberal Attitudes5 A Collective Response2 Common Sense: The Driver of Social Action?1 Characteristics of Common Sense2 Common Sense and Culture3 Common Sense Durability: Its Drawbacks and a Short History4 Some Common-Sense Thinking Examples5 Theory and Hostility6 Organic Intellectuals and Common Sense7 Neoliberal Language8 Gramsci’s Relevance3 Studying and Thinking: A Critical Curriculum1 John Dewey’s Ideas2 The Seeking Curriculum – A Counterweight3 Reflective Thinking and Group Exercises4 Countering Compartmentalism5 Systems Thinking – A Group Process6 The Cynefin Framework7 An Overview4 Critical Thinking and Other Thought Processes1 Why Critical Thinking?2 Critical Thinking and Rationality3 Biases, Fake News and Power4 Thought Processes of a Tutor5 Five Exercises to Improve Critical Thinking6 An Overview of the Process7 Group Thinking Processes5 Types of Talk: Conversation and Dialogue1 Positive Conversation2 Good Conversation3 A Frenchman and Conversation4 Generating Effective Communication – Dialogue vs. Discussion5 Getting Started6 Deeper Listening and Thinking7 Speech Processes and Metaphors8 Task vs. Dialogue Process9 Summing Up10 A Personal Example11 Dialogue, Technology and Democracy6 Questioning, Acting and Framing1 The Paul-Elder Model: Some Questions2 More Questions, Questions …3 Generative Themes4 Goffman’s Frames5 Replacing Frames – With Other Frames6 Four Activities7 Informal Settings and Authentic Language1 Informal Settings2 Authentic and Inauthentic Language3 Three Validity Claims4 Bullshit5 Challenging Bullshit6 Summing Up8 Formal and Informal Language1 Language and Codes2 Formal and Casual Language3 Playing Bingo4 Using Clichés5 Clichés, Banality and Evil6 Tags and Lies8 Formal and Informal Language1 Language and Codes2 Formal and Casual Language3 Playing Bingo4 Using Clichés5 Clichés, Banality and Evil6 Tags and Lies9 Paying Attention1 Pancakes and Attention2 Some Relevant Questions – Or Not?3 Attention Control – An Employee’s Warning4 Sharing, Space and Time5 Redirecting Attention6 Concentrating7 Listening to Learn8 A Circle Exercise – Individual and Group Attention9 Multitasking10 Storytelling1 Telling Stories2 Giving Feedback3 Levinas’s Ideas4 “Engaged” Stories5 Keeping Hope Alive6 Political Stories7 The Uses of History8 Some Welsh Examples11 Leadership and Group Development1 Why Leaders?2 Leadership Styles and Situations3 A Group Leadership Grid4 Small Groups5 Facilitating Meetings – Some Principles6 More Suggestions for Groups7 The Circle of Voices Exercise8 Team Talking9 Two More Exercises10 Summing Up12 Social Action Practices1 Action Practices and Strategies2 Overview13 Challenging Power1 Types of Power2 Castells’s Grounded Theory of Power3 A Pioneering Exemplar4 Power and Politics5 A Dynamic, Positive Force?6 Are the Net and Old Protest Habits Enough?7 Students Are Activists, TooPostscript: Covid-19 and BeyondReferencesIndex