Drifting in corridors: Material entanglements of agency in democratic education

Democratic education (DE) is contested for not contributing optimally to pupils’ agency or participation. Additionally, it is argued that DE’s focus on rationalistic agenda overlooks materiality, e.g. bodies and spaces. Therefore, this article explores how a school’s democratic practices are entangled with materiality as we study agency with pupils in a youth-led project. The theoretical foundations of this study are based on feminist new materialism, which is rarely employed in the context of DE. Drawing on the research method of drifting, the empirical material was produced with eleven pupils, aged 13–14 years. In the analysis, we explore how bodies and spaces have thing-power, ability to affect, and are thus relevant to DE, because they contribute to children’s participation and school democracy. Focusing on materiality reveals power relations that hinder DE from being actualized. We conclude that adding material perspectives to DE and to the understanding of agency would provide a transformative and inclusive approach to foster children’s participation and citizenship in school and society.