Shaping a ‘pedagogy of interruption’: Theorizing the role of educational agents in democratic education in urban contexts

Abstract

This article theorises the role of educational agents in democratic education in urban contexts by engaging in the discussion about the relationship between citizenship, democracy and education. Therefore, we confront Gert Biesta’s conceptualisation of a ‘pedagogy of interruption’ with the empirical insights that emerge from a qualitative research project on democratic education in a particular urban context in Ghent (Belgium). We elaborate on the historical developments and origins of the educational practices and interventions in this urban context and reveal three contemporary educational strategies that coincide and complement each other while implementing the democratic ideal of equality in differentiated ways: integration, activation and instigation. Our analysis enables us to reflect on the complexities, ambiguities and dilemmas at stake when educational agents shape a ‘pedagogy of interruption’. This pedagogy entails the constant search to balance the multidimensional purposes of democratic education, that is, between socialisation and subjectification.