In this episode we interview Alex Turrall, an independent researcher and primary school teacher. We talk to Alex about two reviews they've written for Liberated Texts. Liberated Texts is an independent book review website which features works of ongoing relevance that have been forgotten, underappreciated, suppressed or misinterpreted in the cultural mainstream since their release.

Liberated Texts focuses on texts with anti-colonial, anti-imperialist themes and those related to the history of Marxism, communism and revolution globally.

We ask Alex to talk about the work of Soviet pedagogues Anton Makarenko and Vasily Sukhomlinsky. In doing so Alex touches on the interventions of these Soviet educators at two key points in Soviet history, after the revolutionary rupture with the Tsarist Russian Empire and in the aftermath of World War II. Along the way, Alex touches on different techniques and strategies illuminated by the books they reviewed for Liberated Texts. Alex also talks about the influence of these pedagogical figures within the socialist world and among liberation movements.

We’ll links to the articles, the video Alex references and some other resources in the show notes. We apologize in advance for all the mispronunciation in this episode, as we try to pronounce various names in unfamiliar languages to us.

As of publishing this episode, we have hit our big goal of 1,000 patrons. Thank you so much all for your support. Both Josh and I are doing this work full-time now, and we couldn’t do it without you all. So if you are listening and haven’t become a patron of the show yet, it’s still a great time to do so.

Now here is our conversation with Alex Turrall on Makarenko and Sukhomlinsky. 

Links:

A Pedagogy of Nature: Vasily Sukhomlinsky's My Heart I Give to Children by Alex Turrall (Liberated Texts)

A Pedagogy of the Collective - From The Soviet Union To Latin America: Makarenko, His Life and Work by Alex Turrall (Liberated Texts)

Sukhomlinsky's Lesson

Las Makarenkas Educadoras (Cuba)

MST, Agro-ecology and Pedagogy

Makarenko Archives