Is this a safe thing to do? Exploring schools’ use of ‘safety’ and the construction of citizens ‘at risk’

Background

In the last few decades, the word ‘safety’ has become silently but increasingly pervasive in educational policies and debates, gaining a new momentum with the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite a wide body of literature highlighting the socially constructed nature of this concept (and its antonym ‘risk’), there has been limited discussion on what safety in educational contexts means and this notion has often been idealised. Safety, however, as a fluid concept increasingly permeated in educational discourses, contributes to define who is included and excluded from the desirable safe society. When educational scholars, practitioners and policy makers use the concept of safety, a power relationship is articulated by recognizing the ‘citizen at risk’ who is in need of safety (or poses a potential danger) and by opening up (and restricting) possibilities of action.

Aims of this research

This research project aims to explore: a) the ways in which ‘safety’ has permeated discourses of citizenship in educational policy, b) how educators (re)produce these discourses and c) the citizen subjectivities they shape and exclude.

This study is conducted in New Zealand where the word ‘safety’ has become paramount in educational debates, particularly those related to culturally responsive pedagogies and in recent government initiatives, such as Unteach Racism. Paradoxically, however, in our latest research project on young people’s ‘acts of citizenship’ (Isin, 2009) during Covid-19 lockdowns, we saw how the concept of safety in schools operated as a mechanism to oppress young people’s social actions, particularly those against racism (see Estellés, Bodman & Mutch, 2022; Estellés et al., 2023). The idea of safety appeared to take on an almost sacred quality when invoked by teachers and principals in this post-Covid era, producing a ‘regime of truth’ (Foucault, 1980) in which anything that threatens the idea of safety (e.g., risk, conflict and dissent) is displaced from the civic culture of schools. This is not the first time the discourses of safety privilege social control measures, while framing it in positive ways. For this reason, it is important to interrogate and explore the educational meanings and uses of this concept which is often invoked under ubiquitous meanings and salvationist overtones in pro of social harmony and inclusion.

Why is this research important?

This study is conducted in New Zealand where the word ‘safety’ has become paramount in educational debates, particularly those related to culturally responsive pedagogies and in recent government initiatives, such as Unteach Racism. Paradoxically, however, in our latest research project on young people’s ‘acts of citizenship’ (Isin, 2009) during Covid-19 lockdowns, we saw how the concept of safety in schools operated as a mechanism to oppress young people’s social actions, particularly those against racism (see Estellés, Bodman & Mutch, 2022; Estellés et al., 2023). The idea of safety appeared to take on an almost sacred quality when invoked by teachers and principals in this post-Covid era, producing a ‘regime of truth’ (Foucault, 1980) in which anything that threatens the idea of safety (e.g., risk, conflict and dissent) is displaced from the civic culture of schools. This is not the first time the discourses of safety privilege social control measures, while framing it in positive ways. For this reason, it is important to interrogate and explore the educational meanings and uses of this concept which is often invoked under ubiquitous meanings and salvationist overtones in pro of social harmony and inclusion.

Potential research impact

Discourses sustain patterns of power, but they are by no means static or immutable. Our ultimate goal with this project is to critically interrogate the taken-for-granted ways in which safety has permeated education discourses and, by doing so, illustrate how there might be different ways to construct such discourses.