Wilful Ignorance and the Emotional Regime of Schools

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article explores how ignorance of vulnerability – particularly of others’ vulnerability – may be produced and maintained in schools, especially in the context of pedagogical engagement with difficult histories. A focus on ignorance forces educators to ask not only about the epistemological presence of ‘difficult knowledge’ in schools, but also how epistemological absences operate affectively, formulating particular ‘emotional regimes’ of ignorance. The article shows how the denial of others’ vulnerability – in the name of race/racism, nation-state/nationalism and the like – invokes and moulds particular emotional regimes that reproduce the ignorance of vulnerability underlying difficult histories. It is argued that only with a systematic analysis of the production and reproduction of emotional regimes of ignorance can educators conceive of vulnerability as being a pedagogical resource for ethical response and political resistance to regimes of ignorance in schools. The article discusses the implications for critical education.