Academic subversion: Harnessing student agency to create change
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(Published version)
Date
2022
Authors
Cornelius Bell, A.
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Conference item
Citation
Student Voice Australia Symposium: Presenter Abstracts, 2022, pp.7-8
Statement of Responsibility
Conference Name
Symposium: Reimagining Student Possibility & Responsibility Voice, Partnership & Governance for the Future (27 Sep 2022 - 28 Sep 2022 : Adelaide, Australia)
Abstract
Higher education is a site of immense social privilege in the contemporary anglosphere (Brown, 2015). By elevating students into positions of ‘better work’, the university’s fundamental purpose – shifted from its roots in the ‘public good’ – now stands to produce‘job ready graduates’ who conform to dominant social norms and expectations (Brett, 2021; Marginson, 2011; Norton, 2020). With higher education as a significant site of sociocultural (re)production, there is also enormous possibility in subverting norms and transforming hegemonic culture, beyond ‘becoming’, towards a true activist citizenry to catalyse social change (Cornelius-Bell, 2021b, 2022; Gramsci, 2007). Unfortunately, contemporary conceptualisation of students by institutions, governments and others in the political ruling class often constrain and define the role of student agency in shaping and transforming their higher education. Amidst corporate narratives (Bonnell, 2016), abundant neoliberalism (Giroux, 2002), rising managerialism (Anderson, 2008; Castiello-Gutiérrez et al., 2020), narcissism and forced competition, higher education has substantially lost its way as a tool for the public good (Cornelius-Bell, 2021a)
This presentation challenges the role of the student in the higher education apparatus. It offers an alternative view of solidarity and collective action to enable ‘the average student’ to enact radical social change from inside their education. Acknowledging that there are conditioning frameworks, legislations and governance bodies and policies, the presentation asks participants to consider their role in gradual ‘nudging’ from below,through to dragging their lecturers, support staff and broader community on an educational journey which repurposes pedagogical tools for real change