Identity positions of the resisting student in the academic student resistance discourse

Abstract

ABSTRACT How does the academic discourse of resistance in university classrooms write the identities of resisting students into shape? We answer this question by performing a review of the student resistance literature. Analyzing this literature, we apply methods of critical discourse analysis and identify six identity positions of the resisting student as construed by the academic discourse. Discussing how these different identity positions frame the ways students should be and act in the classroom, we show that the literature adheres to manifold identity positions. However, what we also observe is a closed and privileged discourse that serves to essentialize resistance in the students. The academic discourse neglects that student resistance does not reside in the mind and body of the students but is a socially constituted phenomenon. Furthermore, the literature promotes the discursive power of academics by largely overlooking the students’ voices as a group also involved in university teaching.