Student Rent-Strikes: Hope Through Unplanned Critical Pedagogy

Lucy Wenham; Helen Young

doi:10.14288/ce.v15i3.186806

Student Rent-Strikes

Hope Through Unplanned Critical Pedagogy

Authors

Lucy Wenham University of Bristol
Helen Young London South Bank University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6021-3513

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v15i3.186806

Keywords:

critical consciousness, critical pedagogy, critical hope, social movements, praxis

Abstract

We explore a site of unplanned, informal critical pedagogy and how raising critical conscious occurs. During the Covid-19 pandemic, some students in England were required to pay rent for accommodation they could not occupy, or which offered reduced amenities. These largely first-year undergraduates had yet to meet each other. Nonetheless, these students – many of whom are not the traditionally ‘oppressed’ - joined together to resist collectively, refusing to pay rent. Their action resulted in some partial victories. Through the lens of Freire’s critical pedagogy, we examine students’ lived experiences of participating in rent-strikes – using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. Ideas of dialogue, praxis and learning with others through collective resistance, pervade the data. The research fleshes-out these stages which interweave to raise critical consciousness. This offers a site of critical hope, providing insights into possibilities for realising critical pedagogy across a wider demographic in spite of a relentless neoliberal agenda.

Author Biographies

Lucy Wenham, University of Bristol

Lucy Wenham is Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Sociology of Education at the School of Education, University of Bristol. She researches problems of educational marginalisation and exclusion and solutions involving critical pedagogy, critical eco-pedagogy and critical hope. She also explores education’s key role in tackling climate and social injustice together.

Helen Young, London South Bank University

Helen Young is an Associate Professor in Education and teaches on the BA Education Studies and on the EdD at London South Bank University. As a sociologist of education, she explores ideas of democracy, citizenship and dialogue in relation to education. She is interested in how these interrelate with critical pedagogy, education for sustainability and climate justice. Recent research projects, in universities and schools, have included exploring student voice, student rent strikes and deliberative classrooms.

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Published

2024-08-01

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 3 (2024)

Section

Articles

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