School, Polycrisis, and Power. Micro-spaces of Freedom in Contemporary Education

Decolonial and intersectional perspectives, together with the concepts of polycrisis and scalarity, provide useful interpretative frameworks for understanding the transformations affecting contemporary school systems. These approaches challenge the idea of knowledge as stable and centralized, highlighting instead its distributed nature and the corresponding need to redistribute power across different subjects, contexts, and levels. Building on this theoretical framework, this paper examines the growing sense of disconnection experienced by both teachers and students. This condition can be interpreted as a form of alienation arising from the difficulty individuals face in recognizing themselves within the educational processes they inhabit, particularly because of the gap between their lived experiences and the languages, forms of rationality, and practices institutionally recognized as legitimate. At the same time, both teachers and students encounter increasing difficulties in participating in the construction of meaning. The paper argues that these transformations cannot be addressed solely through methodological innovations or organizational reforms; rather, they require a rethinking of the conditions for participation in educational processes and of the relationship between knowledge and power. In light of the current power relations, the paper explores the possibility of fostering situated forms of student participation and agency, which we define as “micro-spaces of freedom”. Although these do not constitute a systemic solution, they enable new ways of meaning-making and alternative forms of educational relationships informed by an ethics of care.

Keywords: micro-spaces of freedom;intersectionality;decoloniality;power;devolution;care

Pier Giuseppe Rossi, Lorella Giannandrea, Francesca Gratani, Lorenza Maria Capolla, Scuola, policrisi e potere. Micro-spazi di libertà nei processi educativi contemporanei in "EDUCATION SCIENCES AND SOCIETY" 1/2026, pp 33-48, DOI: 10.3280/ess1-2026oa23163