Tangly tendrils of radical influence: a poetic Oral History inquiry of Huntingdale Technical School as an example of radical education

Abstract Huntingdale Technical School was opened in 1972 as an ‘alternative’ school operating within its state government education system in south-eastern Australia. This article is written from the author’s perspective as a former student, and draws on data from Oral History interviews with four of the school’s former teachers to examine how the school can be regarded as an example of radical education. Poetic inquiry is used as both an analytical and representational device to distil the key essence of their stories, and demonstrate how radical practice neither arises in a vacuum, nor is contained within the particular moment in time in which it occurs. Tim Ingold’s theoretical concepts of lines, knotwork, and entanglements, are used to describe the motivations, ramifications and influences of radical practice as long tendrils stretching forwards and backwards through time. This messy, tangly, organic metaphor suggests possibilities for thinking non-linearly about educational practice and may have implications for those who seek to nurture and sustain radical, democratic and creative approaches to education in the future.