The aim of this book, as explained in the Introduction, is to demonstrate not only the urgent challenges from neoliberalism facing educationalists, but also a range of positive responses to these challenges. We have taken Raymond Williams (1989) notion of ‘resources of hope’ to draw together the rich variety of responses offered by contributors to the book and to identify what Milana and Rapanà call ‘interstices for resistance’ – points where it is possible to intervene to disrupt the dominant neoliberal regime and to help emergent, more emancipatory, cultures to take root. The notion of hope is explicitly referred to by several contributors as central to affirming identity and emboldening action.

Some of these resources are directly relevant to educational practitioners, suggesting strategies that can be used in teaching or other aspects of institutional practice. Some are resources that can guide educational researchers in designing and carrying out ‘resistant’ research that foregrounds alternatives to neoliberal values. Some are principles and rules of thumb that can be used in both practice and research.

Many involve collaboration with others, with the aim of pooling resources and widening the spaces for action. Such collaborations can be formalised through organised public events and networks, but the contributors to this book also assert the value of persisting with what may seem like mundane, everyday, acts of resistance that are based on seeing and seizing opportunities to do and say things differently. Such acts are, they argue, the bedrock for fostering wider change. In the following, we identify ten key ideas gathered from across the chapters that contribute to such changes:

• 1. Many chapters make the point that a core aspect of resistance in a difficult or hostile environment is to find ways to create dialogic, emancipatory spaces that are affirming, positive and culturally sensitive for those participating in them. Identifying and forcing open such spaces requires sustained effort and strong commitment. In practice, this can be done via pedagogy and curriculum (Desai et al), and making opportunities for the professional exchange of experiences, opinions, learning, collective action and mutual aid (as in Quinn and Bates, with their Radical Librarians Collective, and Hursh et al's parents and teachers in the opt-out movement in the US).