Praxis: Implication for ‘Really’ Radical Education

In a great deal of radical and Marxist writings, praxis is the term used to refer to a necessary relation between theory and practice. Theory, in these cases, means radical social, political and economic theory. Sometimes this involves Marx's own thought, but more often, and increasingly, it involves theorists/political activists who came after Marx, such as Lenin, Trotsky, Gramsci and Mao. But in this traditional use of the term praxis there is the flawed and undialectical assumption that the relation between theory and practice is a sequential one. In other words, the assumption that theory arises from action (sometimes the action of analysing reality, sometimes political action); it then informs further action (this time political action) and that experience is used to refine or further articulate the theory. Act - reflect - act or reflect- act- reflect and so the sequence unfolds.