Educating for anti-complicity

A pedagogical response to political and structural violence

Bibliographic Data

ID21725981
AuthorsM Zembylas (0000-0001-6896-7347, Open University of Cyprus, Cyprus and Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume24
Issue5
Pages672-688
Publication date2025-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Educational Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1474-9041 • E-ISSN: 2165-8714
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14749041251325403
OpenAlexW4408417192
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited38

This article addresses the thorny issue of complicity in global reckonings of political and structural violence and asks: What does it mean to educate students for anti-complicity, when educators, students and their communities are already steeped into institutions, norms, and practices that engage in political and/or structural violence, as perpetrators, collaborators or bystanders? What are the risks of pedagogies that cultivate affective practices of anti-complicity in the classroom? Drawing on literature that brings together affect theory and political thought, this paper interrogates how thinking about both complicity and resistance in non-binary terms can help address past and present instances, norms and practices of political and structural violence. It is argued that the development of anti-complicity pedagogies that recognize the complexities of “shared complicities” provides a nuanced way to teach and learn about political and structural violence and their implications in everyday life

Complicity · Criminology · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Critical Race Theory in Education · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Law · Peace and Human Rights Education

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