Culture, Education and Political Leadership in Gramsci’s Thought

Abstract

This chapter posits a view of Gramsci’s thought in which culture, education and politics are inseparably connected. According to Gramsci, culture, whether ‘high’ or ‘low’, is a ‘worldview’. It has existential and social implications. The revolution of culture is a moral endeavour as well as an intellectual one; both necessary to fight for hegemony. Thus, making cultural change feasible is up to education. This culture must never be abstract and elitist. The school, according to Gramsci, has a task of great civic value, and, inspired by the cultural values of a community, the fruit of tradition and history, it should make young students internalize them and customize them. Culture and education find their political fulfilment in politics. Praxis is the field of the ‘political’ struggle for hegemony, not meant as ‘dominion’ but as ‘management’ made by the intellectual class that has a pedagogical function in society. Gramsci’s pedagogy has its focal point in praxis. It claims to be an educational Weltanschauung with its inevitable political consequences, because it constantly addresses both the theoretical and practical principles that should guide action in human, social, institutional relations.