Critically Educated Hope

Abstract

This closing chapter draws together the threads of the book by providing a platform from which to act. Our opening proposition is that at their best, schools can be transformative places of hope and possibility, but they are far too often places of fear, incarceration and ‘cruel optimism’ (Berlant, Differ J Fem Cult Stud 17(3): 20–36, 2006). Schools can end up mouthing platitudes, while wilfully refusing to equip young people with the intellectual resources with which to analyse, confront and puncture rampant humbug. We confront this situation directly by providing a toolkit—not a recipe! Firstly, by exploring what it might look like for young people—those who are the most marginalized—to confront the ruthless pursuit of individualism, materialism, consumption that is coming to characterise their lives, by examining the way these processes deform and disfigure their lives and communities. Secondly, we show what schools look like that are able to find the space within which to put a very different inflection on schooling, where: (i) teachers are treated and act as intellectuals; (ii) students position themselves as activists in respect of their own learning; and where (iii) communities present as politically engaged and connected. Along the way, we provide a sense of how young people might gain a sense of control of their destinies by pursuing a critical pedagogy of ‘audacious’ hope.