Taking a punk stance on political performativity in education

This piece examines the performances enacted within contemporary educational politics—both K-12 and colleges and universities. To do this, we engage with theory from performance studies, higher education policy, and a punk ethos to suggest how contemporary politics treat higher education as a prop. Further, we illustrate how the current moment is a historical pattern familiar from the past and how a punk sensibility can provide alternative forms of hope. Ultimately, we wonder how punk’s insistence on authenticity, its delighting in refusal, its joy in resistance, and its theoretical staying power may undermine attempts to destroy public education through the mechanism of unfettered state control.