Teaching to resistance and refusal: feminist pedagogical engagements in the UK Higher Education classroom

Critical feminist pedagogies have sought to emphasise the productive capacity of emotion in the classroom—from joy and curiosity to anger, discomfort, and guilt—alongside positioning refusal and resistance as necessary aspects of transformative learning and social justice. In this article, we offer speculative reflections on moments of classroom resistance and refusal within the limits of the broader institutional life of UK Higher Education (HE). Using an anecdotal method, we discuss the complexity of defining, knowing and assessing the meaning—let alone the productivity—of student resistance and refusal. Our reflections point towards the limiting effects of institutional practices on effective and inclusive teaching in the increasingly precarious UK HE context