ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that education must be recognised as permeable if it is to be more democratically re-oriented in the 21st century. It introduces the theorisation of ‘Educational Consciousness’, a concept of the perceptions held by the public of a contextually bound body of knowledge and of teaching and learning. A public pedagogy project situated in Footscray, a post-industrial working-class suburb of inner urban Melbourne, Australia, facilitated and examined the responsive engagement between community, place and educational consciousness. It surfaced and reinforced Footscray’s vibrant, situated, specific knowledge and expertise. Of significance in the broader project of democratising education, Footscray holds powerful insights about the importance of place, kin, temporality, change and history, in education and learning. The theorisation of educational consciousness provides leverage for situated public knowledges to be understood as democratic re-imaginings of education.
