Manifestations and Effects of Everyday Resistance in Student Dormitories
Abstract
Student dormitories in Slovenia are educational residential institutions, primarily intended for upper secondary school students whose place of study is geographically distant from their family home. Their aim is to support students’ academic success and personal development through structured living, educational guidance, and psychosocial support. However, the institutional social control and disciplinary acts incite resistance that can function to reproduce or shift dormitory norms and structures, with ambiguous effect for the empowerment of the students. Leaning on the ideas of critical-emancipatory social pedagogy, the article explores dormitory counsellors’ perceptions of everyday resistance and asks two research questions. Firstly, how does everyday resistance manifest itself in shifting student dormitory norms and structures and with what effects? Secondly, how does everyday resistance manifest itself in reproducing dormitory norms and structures and with what effects? Five semi-structured interviews with dormitory counsellors were conducted, focusing on examples of everyday resistance. The analysis is grounded in theoretical conceptualisations of power, resistance and critical-emancipatory social pedagogy. Findings suggest that everyday resistance in student dormitories is a pedagogical opportunity for reflexive negotiation of institutional life and regulation of oppressive and productive practices related to intersectional inequalities.
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