Agents of critical hope: black British narratives

Critical hope offers a dynamic framework for theorizing aspirations towards the removal of social injustices, towards social flourishing and also concern with the process itself - how we strive for flourishing. The collective directions of critical hope are predicated upon affirmation of the importance of praxis; a forging of alliances across social groups; democratic citizenship and participation; and a focus on relationality as central to how we think and learn. This chapter maps a particular, local history of praxis and alliances: a history of black British social agency in struggles over education and social justice in the post-war period. In examining black British educational activism, this chapter suggests that while black education movements in the UK have been diverse, they have always been predicated upon critical hope, wherein critical understanding of the school system's maintenance of race-class inequalities and hope in education as potentially transformative, a site of liberation and solidarity, have existed in tandem and in tension.