Appearing as Impossible Subjects on the Scene of Education: Potato Smashing, Lying on Sofas and Asking for a Key

Abstract

In this chapter, we explore a form of young people’s activism taking place in a central societal institution and a central forum in the lives of young people – school – that we conceptualise as ‘active equity’. We present three cases from northern Finland: reindeer herders smashing potatoes, immigrant youth requesting a key and young people lying on sofas during breaks between lessons. We suggest that these acts, in the contexts in which they took place, were an unrecognised form of social action for equity undertaken by young people. We argue that the concept of active equity helps examine the assertion of rights and claims for justice by children and young people. In each case we present, young people make visible an inequity in their contexts: the reindeer herding way of life was overlooked in school, asylum-seeking or refugee immigrants were excluded from the main school building, and non-high-performing young people were excluded from comfortable areas during lessons. These, in turn, linked to broader societal inequities in Finland, a country commonly known for its equality. In school, young people are commonly viewed through intersecting discourses of democracy and education. In both discourses, they are commonly positioned as learners rather than speakers. Through active equity, young people subtly imprint themselves on the scene of education in new ways. For this reason, their acts of active equity remain typically either unrecognised or seen as oppositional in school.

Citation

Lanas, M., Petäjäniemi, M., Väisänen, A.-M., Alamikkelä, K., Kauhanen, I. and Yliniva, K. (2023), "Appearing as Impossible Subjects on the Scene of Education: Potato Smashing, Lying on Sofas and Asking for a Key", Wright, K. and McLeod, J. (Ed.) Childhood, Youth and Activism: Demands for Rights and Justice from Young People and their Advocates (Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Vol. 33), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 73-88. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1537-46612023005