Editorial: Wokeness in Education

Abstract

Over the last few decades, students in secondary and higher education have become increasingly vocal about expressions of racism, sexism, heteronormativity, colonialism and other mentalities tied to inequalities in power. These forms of concern with social injustice, especially in its creeping, veiled or hidden forms, are often summarized under the heading of ‘wokeness’. Lately, the ‘woke movement’ has been faced with fierce critique and is often casted in the role of a language police, leading others, for fear of saying the wrong things or using the wrong words, to keep their mouths shut. But what if these tensions are not an expression of the closure of an argument, but rather a sign that something is beginning to open up? Do we need to move/work through these tensions in order to foster free debate in educational settings?