Interrupting Infiltrating Investigating: Radical Youth Pedagogy in Education

Frustration can often be stagnating but it can also encourage action change and lead to hope. From the silencing of Indigenous cultures to the legislation of gendered pedagogy we are frustrated by educational spaces overshadowed by robotic pedagogy and curriculum that continually fails to recognize the cultures that already exist in those spaces perhaps most notably youth culture. The contributions within this volume speak deeply about the radical potentials challenges and hopes of a youth-focussed and/or led pedagogy in education. They show possibility and modest ethical and transformative ways of interrupting infiltrating and investigating radical youth pedagogy that are not complete but partial reflective and on-going: we propose radical youth pedagogy as a framework for opening of critical spaces for thinking doing being and performing that can better acknowledge the power and potential in young people but also practice skills for them to thrive in and beyond education. Radical youth pedagogy means interrupting the silences exclusions patterns of dominance and status quo practices of pedagogy policy curriculum and assessment. It means infiltrating with artful and arts-based thinking writing production and practice in ways that connect youth to curriculum their surroundings and each other in positive and transformative ways. It also means investigating educator practices approaches and even school structures to better support youth in education and throughout their lives. It is our hope that this edited collection may act as a theoretical and practical toolbox for educators wishing to radicalize their educational approaches while disrupting normalized pedagogy and classroom cultures.