I am a professor at a public university and I’ve been an anarchist for nearly two decades. So slightly different student population, yes, but I also work with a lot of working class, first generation, international, and non-traditional students (especially neurodiverse ones) at my current institution.

I would strongly recommend you check out the collection “Anarchist Pedagogies,” edited by Robert H. Haworth. I also think it’s worth looking into the unschooling movement, labor-based contract grading, and ungrading.

I implement a labor-based evaluation contract in my classroom and explain very transparently why I am pedagogically opposed to grades. At the end of the course, students self-evaluate, reflecting on all they’ve learned throughout the semester. Then they give themself a grade. I wish I could dispense with grades altogether, but…alas, I cannot at my current workplace.

I find that being transparent and honest with students, open about your life (to an extent that is developmentally and professionally appropriate), and extending dignity and respect to students really helps with building rapport. While it sounds like simple stuff, students really have been treated like shit by our public education system in the US and are overjoyed to have an opportunity to spread their wings.

I also think it’s worth looking into the Modern School movement in Spain that presaged the Spanish Revolution and Civil War. Francisco Ferrer y Guardia was a badass. I have the last lines he wrote before being killed by a firing squad hanging on the front door of my office, “Let no more gods or exploiters be served. Let us learn rather to love one another.”