Conference Agenda

This panel will address the topic of agonism in education, particularly in relation to implications for school practice. In the current international context of social polarisation, social relations within school and classroom communities can be challenging (Sant, 2021). Examples of these politico-educational challenges can be found across Europe and elsewhere. In England, a headteacher received death threats after some students accused him of pushing forward his 'anti-Brexit' agenda (Dickens, 2019). In Catalonia, following the Catalan referendum for independence, many teachers decided to drop topics such as human rights in fear of disagreements over civil disobedience could arise (SINDIC, 2018). Political divides are currently impacting and likely to increasingly impact everyday educational experiences.

Unsurprisingly in this context, academics have turned their attention towards democratic agonistic theories. In brief, the so-called agonistic theorists, including Mouffe (2013), Honig (2013) and Arendt (2018), emphasise that conflict (the agon) is necessary for any form of democratic society to survive. In education, agonistic scholars have particularly engaged with the work of Chantal Mouffe considering how conflict can be normalised within school practice, political emotions can be educated, and moral enemies can be transformed into political adversaries (e.g. Backer, 2017; Knight Abowitz & Mamlok, 2020; Ruitenberg, 2009; Tryggvason, 2017; Zembylas, 2011). Yet, the key focus of discussion has been distinguishing between agonism and deliberative approaches (Koutsouris et al., 2021; Tryggvason, 2021). Consequently, we still know little in terms of how interdisciplinary agonistic theory and empirical research (e.g. Cento Bull et al., 2019; Postero & Elinoff, 2019; Sant et al., 2021) can help us to frame and address the current politico-educational challenges (Sant, 2021; Sant, forthcoming) and the potential risks that these approaches might carry (Zembylas, 2022).

The ambition of this panel is to critically consider a research agenda for agonistic educational scholarship. Bringing together academics whose work addresses agonism, pluralism and conflict-focused theories in education, the panel will raise questions on the ethics, suitability, possibilities, and challenges of agonistic approaches to education. Panellists will draw upon their existing empirical and/or analytical inquiries to explore: how can schools normalise political conflict within European school contexts? How/can agonism support pluriversality in the context of calls to decolonise education? How do agonistic approaches support teachers to engage with political emotions? What further examinations are needed for those wishing to pursue agonistic or other pluralistic educational practices? Specifically, it involves five contributions from researchers in Belgium, Sweden and the UK, whose work builds from research across Europe and North America:

1. Sant will provide a “state-of-the-art” on agonistic democratic education, examining synergies and differences within agonistic theories and their educational developments.
2. Reflecting on recent attempts to apply agonistic theory to the teaching of values in UK schools, McDonnell will revisit the specific political circumstances into which agonism originally intervened, and the changing political landscape of recent years, to ask, ‘is agonism an anachronism?
3. Drawing on decolonial critiques of democratic education, da Costa and Pashby will distinguish critical pluralism and pluriversalism. They will explore possibilities to decentre eurocentrism in multiple perspectives pedagogy through participatory research with teachers in northern Europe engaging with ethically complex global issues.
4. Brummer will consider teachers’ perspectives of conflict and diversity in empirical research on citizenship education in Flanders, Belgium. She will focus on the ways teachers deal with conflict and discussions about ‘the other’ and whether emotions are welcomed in the classroom.
5. Tryggvason will address recent decolonial critique of agonism. Tryggvason will argue for the necessity of hegemony in democratic education and how it can provide a conceptual way forward for agonistic educational scholarship.