Depth Education For Youth (DEFY)

The story of the three-year Depth Education for Youth (DEFY) project began in the second half of 2023. DEFY is an experiment created with and for educators, exploring feelings by evoking them and inquiring into discomfort by inviting it in.

After the first phase of the project, in March 2024, an eZine was created in an attempt to convey the essence of what was shared. The eZine is a collection of diary entries, poetry, art, highlights from conversation circles, and a series of reflections from what educators have been sharing in DEFY spaces since September 2023.

At the end of July 2024, a partner meeting took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where we piloted the emerging material and highlighted what had surfaced in the meantime. We understand DEFY as a collaborative inquiry with fellow educators and pedagogues. The material produced in different spaces is considered a “foundational discourse,” along with a collective awareness of its limitations and, at the same time, the need to go further and deeper in understanding. Participation and interconnectedness are also guiding principles.

‘Difficult knowledge’ is central to the project. This knowledge is difficult both because of the painfully traumatic material in the content itself and because it asks us to reflect on our own positions and their consequences, as well as our entanglement with structural violence and injustice. We are prepared for moments when this may disrupt our self-image and sense of identity.