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Through conversations with Hekima, it contrasts community change with the persistence of students’ lived realities and redefines success as mutual well-being, rooted in Ubuntu.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/","Literature",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/from-life-in-the-gutter-to-a-pedagogy-of-freedom-the-importance-of-learning-from-young-people/594732/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/from-life-in-the-gutter-to-a-pedagogy-of-freedom-the-importance-of-learning-from-young-people/594732.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Ben ","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-20","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":30},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",{"@type":56,"mainEntity":57},"FAQPage",[58,64,68],{"name":59,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":61},"How does the article position its response to the earlier work on the neoliberal classroom?","Question",{"text":62,"@type":63},"It builds on the earlier argument that educational reform conversations should center education for democracy, while reframing the process to include young people as active participants.","Answer",{"name":65,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":66},"What does Hekima’s insight suggest about the meaning of success?",{"text":67,"@type":63},"Success is redefined as ensuring others’ success as well; 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Among other critical insights, Ayers and Ayers argue that we must frame conversations about educational reform in ways that center education for democracy. Here, I build on this argument by suggesting that young people must be fully welcomed and involved in the construction of this alternative frame.  \nHekima and I are sitting on a bench that looks like a log cut in half standing on two piles of bricks, outside the front entrance of her middle school. It is hot out, but in the shade we are protected from the burning sun enough to laugh and smile and talk about her life here in this building, on this city block, in our changing country. Hekima’s schoolsits behind us, a short, long cinderblock with windows protected by metal grates, a bright orange mural across the front wall proudly announcing its name. We can hear the children above us talking and laughing, seemingly engaged in whatever is going on inside. In front of us, across the wide expanse of a nicely manicured field and a small park where children play, is an old, brick building. The building looks charred—as if a bomb had been dropped somewhere deep inside, its force emanating outward toward where we now sit. Most of the windows are shattered or gone, and there are pieces of scrapwood covering where the doors used to be. To an outsider, the building might suggest that we are sitting amidst a war zone, signaling danger or at least destruction. But Hekima and I know the truth: This building is simply a sign of the community changing around us, the transition from what was once a working class neighborhood to what will soon be a cluster of condominiums for wealthier families. This change means little for Hekima, whose family lives in a different part of the city, and who knows the harsh truth that still lurks behind the façade of this transitioning neighborhood. Still, it seems an appropriate backdrop for our conversation.  \nHekima is one of many students I have been talking with in order to explore the kind of supports that they use to be “successful,” but Hekima has a deeper lesson to teach me, one that goes beyond my research project. She is preaching the truth to me—a thirty-  \n1 Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Gretchen Brion-Meisels, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Email: [gab196@mail.harvard.edu](gab196@mail.harvard.edu)  \nMany thanks to Bill and Rick Ayers for their continued passion and for the many ways in which they push us to act for change. Thanks also to the many friends who have helped me to shape and refine these ideas: Eliza, Hahrie, Chantal, Thomas, Carla, Santiago, Daniel, Linda, Steven, and Candice, to name just a few .  \nBerkeley Review of Education Vol. 2 No . 1, pp. 109-123  \n110 Brion-Meisels  \nsomething, White, woman researcher who has come out of nowhere and asked her to share her story. She is defining success—redefining it in many ways—weaving together the lessons that she has learned from different people and crafting them into a vision of the world as she sees it. Her words float into my adult ears, a 12-year-ol","cbCaievWNW8uhHyc","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaievWNW8uhHyc","pdf",265618,16,"English","# Introduction\n## Learning from young people\n## Redefining success through Ubuntu\n## Conversation with Hekima","[{\"question\":\"How does the article position its response to the earlier work on the neoliberal classroom?\",\"answer\":\"It builds on the earlier argument that educational reform conversations should center education for democracy, while reframing the process to include young people as active participants.\"},{\"question\":\"What does Hekima’s insight suggest about the meaning of success?\",\"answer\":\"Success is redefined as ensuring others’ success as well; well-being is interconnected, captured by the concept Ubuntu: “I am because you are.”\"},{\"question\":\"What barriers does Hekima identify that prevent peers from learning and trying their best?\",\"answer\":\"She points to discouraging messages people receive, such as being told they will never amount to anything, alongside the need for supportive affirmation.\"}]","From Life in the Gutter to a Pedagogy of Freedom - The Importance of Learning from Young People | PDF",1792079738,25]