FreshEd #420 – The Safetyfication of Education (Marta Estellés)

·30 min·3 clips

Marta Estellés reveals how the benign word 'safety' masks privatization and depoliticization in schools worldwide.

Will Brehm hosts Marta Estellés, a senior lecturer at the University of Waikato, to discuss her open-access book 'The Safetyfication of Education'. Estellés begins by questioning why safety is rarely challenged in education, noting it appears benign but serves diverse agendas from libertarian groups to social justice activists. She explains that safety's importance stems from a slow development of risk mentality tied to capitalism. Estellés defines 'safetyfication' as the process through which safety has become pervasive, redefining educational aims, teacher roles, and citizen ideals. She provides an example where a teacher avoided discussing same-sex marriage due to concerns about student safety, illustrating how political topics get sidelined. Historically, safety in Anglo-Western societies shifted from incident prevention in the 19th century to a call for order in the 1970s, then to psychological safety in the 1990s, and recently to cultural safety in the 2010s. Estellés uses Byung-Chul Han's concept of psychopolitics to explain the psychological and cultural turns, describing it as a friendly, positive power that manages minds rather than disciplining bodies. In New Zealand, she found safety programs often superficial due to market competition and time constraints, with schools externalizing services to private companies. Estellés critiques how safety discourses individualize problems and avoid conflict, leading to depoliticization. She also examines UNESCO's role in promoting safety, arguing it places unrealistic burdens on schools and diverts from structural solutions like economic redistribution. The episode concludes with Estellés advocating for alternatives that embrace conflict, critical analysis of structures, and the 'beautiful risk' of education, referencing philosophers like Habermas and Gerd Wieser.

As heard by us

A careful look at how safety can protect schools while also disciplining them and making room for privatization.

Safety sounds like a promise schools can stand behind, and this FreshEd episode looks at what that promise begins to arrange once it is everywhere.

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Why you'd press play

When safety language fills your education feed, this episode lets you follow what that word starts organizing inside schools.

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