Lyn Mikel Brown

This paper considers some of the implications of the “postmodern condition” for the practice of moral education in the contemporary world. It argues that an explicitly critical dimension is a key element of the postmodern perspective and suggests that, from such a perspective, most of the efforts to engage in explicit moral education over the past 25 years have fallen short, because instead of pushing toward genuine critique and authentic change they have simply perpetuated the status quo. It proposes, therefore, that a critical postmodern moral pedagogy must address the fundamental inter‐relationship between language and power, and must adopt a dialogical attitude that does not grant exclusive access to power, knowledge and authority to the teacher, but instead seeks ways in which teachers and students can engage in genuine dialogue and mutual exchange.

This interchange explores the role of girl (ages thirteen to twenty-two) activism in the USA organisation SPARK (Sexualization Protest: Action, Resistance, Knowledge). Some of the many initiatives and programmes SPARK has enacted with girls, including online forums, blog spaces, marches, and summits directly address recent calls to attend to the complexity in understanding and resisting ‘sexualisation’ with teen girls. Several of the girls’ media appearances are explored in detail to illustrate the dynamics of girls’ agency and resistance that emerge in their embodied engagements with ‘sexualisation’.