Abstract

DIY is often viewed as a core element of punk, an aspect that enabled activism against an
assumed authority and power (Guerra, 2018; Martin-Iverson, 2017). It is therefore often
lauded as a means of engaging with/utilising punk in a pedagogical sense (Bestley, 2017;
Cordova, 2016). It should be capable of working in tandem with education in developing
and encouraging the ‘movement against and beyond boundaries’ (hooks, 1994). However,
this is not necessarily simple or straightforward to realise through one’s own pedagogical
practices, especially when one considers them through an intersectional lens. We argue
that punk scholarship on DIY fails to account for its capacity to support ableist ideologies
and structures - incorporating it into punk pedagogy in an uncritical manner risks further
deepening asymmetrical power relations in regards to disability and the adversity that
people with disability experience. We utilise collaborative auto-ethnography to unpack
some of the complexities involved in pursuing punk pedagogical practices and unpacking
the aforementioned critique of DIY further. We consider how DIY can/could potentially
be a powerful, empowering pedagogical tool and consider the ways DIY purports a
damaging, ableist narrative, which at times can even aid the neoliberal agenda within
higher education. The necessity for punk pedagogies to be underpinned by considerations
of intersectional issues, both from the viewpoint of the teacher and the students, is
demonstrated through our use of critical disability theory as an analytical tool.