Democratic engagements with negativities in education and public school

In this article, I argue that the neoliberal order and its close link to the notion of educationalisation make education—and public schools more specifically—an instrument for political problem-solving and labour market agendas; this, then, makes it difficult for educators to act like public intellectuals with the freedom to create spaces in which one can think, talk and act in ways that are not framed by dominant and instrumental policy. Inspired by Rancière’s and Mouffe’s political work, psychoanalytical thinking and by means of educational examples that stem from (trans)national policy documents (one from the OECD and two from the Danish Government), I describe and analyse how the neoliberal order, including the notion of educationalisation, frames today’s education and can prevent democratic engagements from being a part of Danish public schools. One of the reasons is the strong focus on producing a productive and skilled labour force that successfully secure national economic growth and deliver what the neoliberal labour market desires. This focus contradicts both educators’ and students’ intellectual freedom on a daily basis, which is (still) regarded as vital to supporting education in general and in public schools in particular. Failure seems inevitable. However, failure can be a success for democracy, meaning that some ‘failures’ must be embraced because they are a condition for a living and flourishing democracy.