The freedom to be bad: exploring teacher–student conflict and the possibility for education as subjectification

This article is an effort to explore an incident of conflict that occurred between me—as a teacher in a private tutoring agency—and a fourth-grade boy, Jie, who was under my supervision. During this incident, Jie uttered a physical threat which he directed towards me after I nagged him about his disruptive behaviours. In response, I gave Jie permission to carry out his threat of physical violence against me, but he refrained from doing so. After the incident, we developed a somewhat positive relationship, with Jie showing significant improvement in his conduct. I do not refer to this incident as an example of ‘what to do in a situation like this’, but rather to explore various possible interpretations of the event from a philosophical and educational point of view. In this article, I first discuss two key themes relevant to this incident—namely, freedom and ‘being bad’—and their relationship to one another, before providing a description of the incident itself. I then present the interpretation of the incident that constituted my initial understanding of ‘why my method worked’. I then problematize this interpretation and offer three alternatives, discussing their viability and limitations. The third alternative interpretation, which is largely based on Gert Biesta’s notion of education as subjectification and his interpretation of a similar incident relayed by Homer Lane, is what I settle on in this article. Finally, I draw some implications about education in general from the preceding discussion.