A Critical Approach to Student Agency Discourse: Focusing on ‘Burnout Society’ and the Concept of Governmentality

Abstract

This study aims to critically analyze ‘student agency’ which is presented as a key competency in future education, through the lenses of Han’s ‘Burnout Society’ and Foucault’s governmentality. Student agency is an ability for students to act independently in and out of school. However, although discourses on student agency become crucial for future education, reflective or critical approach to the concept is scarcely found. If most researchers simply try to utilize the concept for future education without any critical reflection, pathological issues in education (e.g., student depression) would remain unsolved. Foucault’s concept of governmentality helps more comprehensive understanding along with Han’s argument. Governmentality is a systematic social mechanism that activates power by controlling minds of individuals. In neoliberalism, governmentality deceives individuals by making them to orientate themselves towards ‘freedom to be normal.’ With Foucault’s idea, Han’s concept of self-exploitation is interpreted as an exploitation by formless power structure. For this concept, it is remarkable that power gradually hides its appearance and blurs a boundary between a subject and the power structure. Student agency discourse, however, tends to be insufficient with the reflection of a relationship between learners and power structure focusing only on methodological aspects by highlighting student agency as a solution for future education. The issues which may be occurred by this are as follows. First, this may repeat the argument of pedagogy in the Enlightenment era by supporting students’ autonomy and rationality. Second, the uncertainty of future could belittle a discourse on the role and duty of education. Third, student agency can be misunderstood as a panacea for future education when it is interpreted as a competency in lifelong learning.