Activism as technology of the posthuman self: towards a more relevant school

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper aims to make a theoretical contribution to the field of student activism in relation to the school. In an age marked by ecological, economic and technological change, and where certainties based on Humanism and anthropocentricism continue to be eroded, this paper explores possibilities for reintegrating the school as meaningful to the ethico-political development of students. Activism is positioned in this paper as a means by which students can actualise their ethico-political agency in relation to the self, others and the world. This paper therefore urges school leaders to recognise the potential of knowledge generated through affirmative youth activism and to find a space for this knowledge within the school. This is particularly important within a context of growing youth disillusionment with formal schooling and its inadequate response to the crises of our age. This paper theoretically develops a relational space within the school for the “offical” knowledge of this education to be brought into meaningful political conversation with the “minor” knowledge generated through youth activism. These theorisations will be supported by case studies taken from the empirical literature on youth activism.