Learning through resistance: contextualisation, creation and incorporation of a ‘punk pedagogy’

This article explores the many contradictions and complexities surrounding the theory and practice of a ‘punk pedagogy.’ It begins with a contextualisation, delineating notions of origin using a framework of anarchist models of pedagogy, teaching and learning in subcultural contexts (in this case, the new age traveller movement of the 1980s and 1990s), and the very beginnings of terminology and definition through Estrella Torrez’s chapter ‘Punk Pedagogy: Education for Liberation and Love.’ As a reiteration of practice, case studies of two current practitioners are explored (Tony McMahon in Australia and Rylan Kafara from Canada), unpacking differences and similarities in punk‐led models of teaching and learning. In conclusion, the importance of punk as teacher and facilitator is explored, examining links between the autobiographical experience of subcultural membership and punk as a tool for learning. This includes looking at how learning within a subculture draws upon the experiential and heuristic in areas such as political affiliations, lifestyle choices and musical preference.