Helping others become

The Pathologisation of Non-Participation in Secondary School Peer Groups

Bibliographic Data

ID2918007
AuthorsBathsheba Slater-Wells (0009-0001-1538-9544, School of Education, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume47
Issue2
Pages1-16
Publication date2025-06-12
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiscourse Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0159-6306 • E-ISSN: 1469-3739
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01596306.2025.2516649
OpenAlexW4411293941
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited27

This paper explores the influence of neoliberal processes of subjectification on peer group relationships. I discuss how my own research with a group of six students at the secondary school in which I teach in southwest England illuminates questions of mutual responsibility, drawing on Butler's notion of cultural intelligibility to analyse the normative and exclusionary frameworks through which participation and responsibility are understood. I argue that neoliberal notions of individual responsibility pathologise students who are perceived as ‘non-participants’ not only for failure to become recognisable neoliberal subjects themselves, but failure to encourage others to become recognisable neoliberal subjects too. Concludingly, I explore the way that relational pedagogies and feminist reframings of responsibility offer new ways to refigure mutuality and participation in the classroom

Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Peer group · Sociology · Children's Rights and Participation · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Psychology · Social Psychology · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

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