The affective dimension of everyday resistance: implications for critical pedagogy in engaging with neoliberalism’s educational impact

ABSTRACT

The main objective of this article is to discuss the affective dimension of resistance in critical pedagogy in a way that would recognize neoliberalism’s affective repercussions. The point is not merely to show that affect is involved in the emergence of resistance in critical pedagogy, but rather to expand the articulation of resistance in neoliberal education through the lens of affect theory. Specifically, the paper theorizes how critical pedagogy can cultivate ‘everyday’ or ‘invisible’ acts of resistance that constitute forms of ‘counter-conduct’ in ways that acknowledge, engage with, and further enhance teachers’ and students’ critical engagement with the affective aspects of resistance and neoliberalism. It is argued that the call for a critical pedagogy to acknowledge the affective dimension of resistance marks an important and necessary moment that allows critical pedagogy to be further enriched in attempts to address the challenges faced by teachers and students in neoliberal education.

KEYWORDS:

• Affect
• critical pedagogy
• resistance
• neoliberalism
• everyday action
• counter-conduct

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. As I discuss later in the paper, Foucault’s notion of counter-conduct denotes forms of resistance that are aimed to counter, evade and/or redirect the mechanisms and objectives that govern our conduct (Odysseos, Death, & Malmvig, 2016).

2. Prolepsis is defined as ‘the representation of a thing as existing before it actually does or did so.’ It comes from the Greek word ‘prolēpsis’ (anticipation).

3. Students’ protests were initiated by the #Rhodesmustfall (#RMF) movement at the University of Cape Town, focusing on dismantling colonial symbols and histories, calling first for the Cecil John Rhodes statue to be removed, and then more globally for decolonization, a sentiment which spread to other higher education institutions both nationally and internationally (Bozalek & Zembylas, 2018). The #feesmustfall (#FMF) movement and student-led protests across South African universities demanded equitable access to higher education, especially for those students who experience race/class and financial barriers to gaining access.

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Michalinos Zembylas

Michalinos Zembylas is Professor of Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies at the Open University of Cyprus. He is also Honorary Professor at Nelson Mandela University in the Chairfor Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation. He has written extensively on emotion and affect in relation to social justice pedagogies, intercultural and peace education, human rightseducation and citizenship education. His recent books include: Psychologized Language in Education: Denaturalizing a Regime of Truth (with Z. Bekerman), and Socially Just Pedagogies in Higher Education (co-edited with V. Bozalek, R. Braidotti, and T. Shefer). In 2016, he received the Distinguished Researcher Award in “Social Sciences and Humanities” from the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation.