Mario Manacorda and his understanding of Gramsci’s concept of school: An interview with Mario Manacorda

Abstract

Mario Alighiero Manacorda—who has recently passed away—was an educationalist and historian of culture and education. He was a leading figure of secular pedagogy and belonged to the Marxist current. His pedagogical thought was based on the claim that, by fighting capitalist alienation, Marx aimed at providing a kind of “Omni-lateral education” thus trying to fully emancipate culture and labour. According to Manacorda, although such ideal was opposed to the ecclesiastic educational framework, it was compatible
with humanist and rationalist educational perspectives. In fact,
Marxist pedagogy draws on these latter approaches and cuts them loose from social and class-oriented assumptions that biased the efficacy of bourgeois culture.
The following interview sheds light on convictions and ideological choices undertaken by left-wing politics, both Italian and international. Manacordaclarifies his understanding of the Gramscian conception of school and outlines a pedagogical framework capable of bringing about the expected Marxist outcomes. Among the main themes: the relation between education and labour [or, more generally speaking, jobs], the need to Omni-laterally form the human being—the latter, according to theoretical perspectives that anticipated the actual concept of capability. Through the analysis of Gramsci, Manacorda recalls some principles that are not currently implemented,
such as educational equity. With respect to this latter point, Manacorda expresses some remarks on the new forms of inequality determined by globalization.