Lessons for higher education: the university as a site of activism

Lynch, Kathleen

doi:10.1080/01425692.2010.500091

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…However, as Checkoway and Norsman (1986) indicated, activism often requires rehearsal before an engagement in overt behavior. For many, the university can represent just such an incubator—and while fulfilling this role, the university may also be changed (Gabel, 2010; Loewen & Pollard, 2010; Lynch, 2010). In one particularly compelling and concrete example, Cory, White, and Stuckey (2010) detailed the way in which student disability identity became connected with larger political discourses and prompted student activists to force institutional change at Syracuse University.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

College students with disabilities redefine activism: Self-advocacy, storytelling, and collective action.

Kimball¹,

Moore²,

Vaccaro³

et al. 2016

Journal of Diversity in Higher Education

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Despite rapid growth in the numbers of students with disabilities enrolling in higher education, there is limited research about their experiences in colleges and universities, and information about their collegiate activism is even more limited. Through a constructivist grounded theory study of 59 college students and recent graduates, we demonstrate the connection between activism and purpose in the lives of students with disabilities. Our findings suggest advocacy skills and activist tendencies were socialized early in life by parental role models. College students with disabilities drew upon foundational self-advocacy skills to engage in a variety of forms of disability activism during college including doing, role modeling, and teaching self-advocacy; reducing stigma through education and storytelling; and collective action. College students also engaged in activism on issues other than disability. Narratives from students with disabilities demonstrate a need to rethink traditional notions of activism in order to develop broader and more accurate definitions of college activism.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

College students with disabilities redefine activism: Self-advocacy, storytelling, and collective action.

Kimball¹,

Moore²,

Vaccaro³

et al. 2016

Journal of Diversity in Higher Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…34 His frustration was shared by many other teacher interviewees who were sympathetic with the movement. This echoes with the broader literature that draws on other contexts, in which teachers often play a key role in reforming classroom management, education policies, or even fostering social movement (Lynch, 2010). Some student activists would approach progressive teachers for advice on issues such as how they could organize student forums and set up Lennon Wall in ways acceptable to both the school and the students.…”

Section: How Students Contested the Rulesmentioning

confidence: 95%

Disciplining Student Activism: Secondary Schools as Sites of Resistance and Control in Hong Kong*

Tong

Yuen

2021

Sociological Forum

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Throughout history, student activism has been a powerful force in promoting social and political changes. During the process, schools-serving in part as an institution of social control-often become a site of contestation, where student activists may clash with the school authorities when mobilizing their peers and fighting for protest goals. Focusing on Hong Kong's Anti-Extradition Bill Movement, which saw extensive participation among secondary school students, this article examines how secondary schools in a non-democratic context dealt with campus protests and how student activists negotiated space for dissent. Based on an on-site survey on student protesters and semi-structured interviews with teachers and student activists, we demonstrate how schools attempted to de-politicize the campus through spontaneously expanding their "hidden curriculum," particularly by creating and repurposing school rules in the face of mounting student activism. In turn, progressive teachers and students developed innovative tactics to negotiate or circumvent these ad hoc school rules. Our findings contribute to the field of sociology of education and contentious politics by exploring the politics of school rules and the complex relationship between schools, teachers, and students during social movements.

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“…Despite what Bauman (1992: 77) sees as a ‘mixture of sham humility and unmistakable pride’, tracing the intellectuals’ stance remains an important issue and a relatively unresolved controversy in the current literature. There are those who argue for mounting a ‘war of position’ and ‘organising resistance’ in ‘journals, books, teaching, conferences and research for critical intellectuals’ in the academy (Lynch, 2010: 575) or in civil society at large (Gramsci, 1971), believing that there can be no ‘view from nowhere’ (Becker, 1967; Rich, 1985; Nagel, 1986), nor can there be a ‘being’ devoid of ‘situation’ and ‘surroundings’ (de Beauvoir, 1974: 275–6). But there are also those like Benda, Alfred Weber and Mannheim who prefer a position of disinterest, with no backing script or other ‘attachments of a particularistic sort – friendship, oikos, city, patriotism, passion’ (Alexander, 2011: 196).…”

Section: Overview Of Dominant Motifs In the Theoretical Study Of Intementioning

confidence: 99%

Becoming public characters, not public intellectuals

Fatsis

2016

European Journal of Social Theory

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Research into the sociology of intellectual life reveals numerous appeals to the public conscience of intellectuals. The way in which concepts such as "the public intellectual" or "intellectual life" are discussed however, conceals a long history of biased thinking about thinking as an elite endeavour with prohibitive requirements for entry. This article argues that this tendency prioritises the intellectual realm over the public sphere, and betrays any claims to public relevance unless a broader definition of what counts as intellectual life is introduced. By calling for a shift from the notion of public intellectuals to Jane Jacobs ' (1961) idea of the 'public character', a publicly-situated and affect-laden conception of intellectual life is articulated with the aim of redefining intellectual life as an ordinary, collective pursuit, rather than the prerogative of a few extraordinary individuals, as well as restoring the role of the senses in theoretical discussions on the life of the mind. The theoretical scope of this paper therefore is to cast the net wider in search for meanings of what public intellectual life is, can or may be in a larger context than "intellectualist" discussions currently allow. Full ArticleThis article sets out to discuss, critique, and repair the idea of public intellectuals as it currently informs the relevant literature in social theory. By arguing against and beyond the existing theoretical body of work on public intellectuals, an alternative conception of intellectual life is offered in the article's last section. The main argument here espoused, puts forward the view that the current interpretive framework with which social theorists approach intellectual life, reads like a rule book of exclusions which treats the life of the mind as an elite endeavour with prohibitive requirements for entry. For all its virtues and good intentions, such an understanding of intellectual life as beholden to a specific type of activity (thinking), an extraordinary kind of person (the intellectual), and a particular habitat (the world of letters), reflects a strikingly limited conception of what intellectual life is, may, or can be, a restricted sense of where intellectual life can be found, or made, and a puzzlingly stereotyped shortlist of potential candidates for the role.

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Lessons for higher education: the university as a site of activism

Cited by 10 publications

References 32 publications

College students with disabilities redefine activism: Self-advocacy, storytelling, and collective action.

College students with disabilities redefine activism: Self-advocacy, storytelling, and collective action.

Disciplining Student Activism: Secondary Schools as Sites of Resistance and Control in Hong Kong*

Becoming public characters, not public intellectuals

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