Holding (Y)our Ground: Navigating Students’ Defensive Resistance in Higher Education in Geography

We explore students’ defensive resistance (SDR) and instructors’ strategies for navigating it in higher education in geography. Drawing on a Web-based survey among geography instructors in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, we analyze how SDR is experienced and navigated in teaching practice. The analysis draws on descriptive survey patterns and reflexive thematic analysis to explore recurring themes across the material. The findings suggest that SDR manifests in forms ranging from passive disengagement to open confrontation and emerges across different teaching contexts, including power-critical content, participatory pedagogies, methodological demands, and institutional expectations. The analysis illustrates that SDR shapes classroom interaction and the negotiation of knowledge, authority, and participation. Respondents described emotional strain and affective labor, while developing ways of navigating these dynamics, ranging from accommodation and confrontation to dialogical approaches. We argue that SDR reflects broader epistemic and institutional tensions, including neoliberal university structures, performance pressures, and changing expectations toward teaching and learning. We contribute to discussions on power-critical pedagogy in geography while showing that SDR raises broader questions about how knowledge, authority, and participation are negotiated. Although grounded in geography, the study speaks to higher education communities across disciplines facing similar tensions around critical knowledge, pedagogical expectations, and academic authority.