Neo-liberal subjectivities and the limits of social change in university-community partnerships

Abstract

In this paper the authors analyse a university-school partnership that went awry. It was designed to develop a new set of philosophical principles to inform work with violent student behaviour in schools. The project brought together a team of researchers from the university and school sector with a strong record of examining and improving the management of behaviour in classrooms. The authors sought volunteer school-based educators to work with them as co-researchers. Despite the team's strong school-based research background, the mutual interest in developing a new approach to work with violence, and the strong collaborative base, they found themselves, as the initiating research team, una..