Author: Larraine Larri & Hilary Whitehouse
James Cook University
Edition: Volume 59, Number 1, April 2019
Introduction: In this paper, we explore the concept of Nannagogy, an innovative pedagogy of informal adult learning enacted by the activist ‘disorganisation’, the Knitting Nannas Against Gas and Greed (KNAGs). The ‘Nannas’ are predominantly older women who undertake non-violent direct action using fibre craft, knit-ins, lock-ons, and occasional street theatre to draw public attention to the negative environmental impacts of unconventional coal seam gas extraction (‘fracking’) and of fossil fuel mining. We identify the characteristics of Nannagogy as a hybrid system of lifelong / later-in-life learning and a complex pedagogy of informal learning that can be understood through social movement learning theory (SML) drawing on Paolo Freire’s (1970) original concept of ‘conscientisation’. Nannagogy is an act of radical adult education that has its antecedents in feminist collective learning strategies such as consciousness raising as well as the formal education strategies of action learning and communities of practice. Nannagogy is highly effective adult learning practice at the intersection of adult learning theory and social movement theory. Data presented in this paper were collected with active KNAG members in Australia as part of a PhD study using surveys, interviews, document analysis of social media (Facebook posts, digital videos, e-news bulletins) and researcher autoethnography. Framing activist adult learning as social movement learning locates environmental and climate justice struggles within lifelong learning practices and enables researchers to better understand the complex processes of informal, situated and often spontaneous adult learning for creating and sustaining movements for social, environmental and political change.
Keywords: Knitting Nannas Against Gas, social movement learning, Nannagogy, activism, lifelong learning, informal learning, active ageing
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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 59:1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.