Journal of Curriculum Theorizing
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Why is Special Education So Afraid of Disability Studies? Analyzing Attacks of Disdain and Distortion from Leaders in the Field
No full textThis article seeks to answer the question: In what ways do recent widespread and sustained critiques of Disability Studies reveal both the restrictiveness and vulnerabilities in the field of Special Education? Using a theoretical framework composed of Disability Studies in Education (DSE), Connor analyzes six recent articles by prominent scholars in the field of special education that contain the following elements: (1) a harsh critique of the social model of disability, frequently distorting and rejecting its contributions; (2) a defense of scientific knowledge as the “true” basis of special education; (3) a generalized tone of fear, anxiety, and anger. In addition to discussing these areas, Connor identifies and engages with the authors’ rationale articulated for rejecting the knowledge claims of DSE, providing evidence of contradiction within their own arguments. The article concludes that the concerted attack on Disability Studies and DSE ironically reveals how special education has lost significant ground in terms of being the sole source of knowledge about education and disability, and can no longer be seen as a “stand alone” legitimate field of study
Learning Spirits: Spectral Pedagogy and Vegan Horror
No full textThis paper examines “the figure of the animal” in horror cinema, and in particular the ways its deployment reveals deep anxieties about our treatment of nonhumans more generally. A specifically vegan horror, as opposed to the categories of animal horror cinema and eco-horror, is proposed: a genre tendency that presents narratives that destabilize distinctions between “man” and “beast” while enacting modes of seeing that allow for the possibility of radical kinship. Finally, through a close reading of The Texas Chan Saw Massacre as a pivotal text, this paper argues that vegan horror can disturb fields of vision in ways that teach us to see others not as means to instrumental ends but instead as a multiplicity of interests and desires.
“I’ve Killed My Puppet!” A Relational Psychotherapeutic Approach to Inclusive Classroom Practices
No full textThis article begins with a story called “I’ve killed my puppet” based on an incident that unfolded in the author’s university class, which provides a concrete illustration of the potential of a relational psychotherapeutic approach to inclusion. At its core, a relational approach is about relationships. What this has meant practically in terms of inclusive practice is reframing “difference” as a relation. A relational view presupposes that “difference” does not singularly reside in the individual, but that “difference” is also shaped and given shape by the group. A distinct feature of a relational praxis that makes it especially inclusive is how relationality works purposefully to center individual and group practices of relating (or not) to one another. Another distinct feature of a relational approach is how it reframes teaching and learning as simultaneously a pedagogic and therapeutic project. Valente uses the “I’ve killed my puppet” story as an example to foreground relational strategies employed in his teaching practice in his class and in that particular episode. He uses the story and the discussion that follows to make the case for inclusive educators to consider adapting, or modifying into their own teaching practices, these particular relational strategies
Oh, How Quickly We Forget: Curriculum Theorizing in the “New” Post-Truth Era
No full textDonald Trump’s presidency has introduced a “new” post-truth era characterized by science denial, “alternative facts,” and a monumentalist longing for some lost American greatness. The association of post-truth solely with Trump’s election, however, elides analysis of the conditions of possibility of both phenomena. The focus on Trump’s bellicosity, overt racism, anti-immigrant sentiment, queer bashing, and misogyny, while important, distracts from the necessary self-critique of liberal elites on their roles in Trump’s ascendency. This paper imperfectly traces the antecedents of the current post-truth moment: sophisticated public relations and propaganda technologies developed in the United States during the early 20th century and the revolt of many liberal intellectuals against Progressive democratic discourses and institutions. The author then discusses his subjective reconstruction of some of his commonsense truths through two autobiographical reflections. Finally, he discusses the implications for curriculum theorizing in this post-truth era in the context of Foucault’s analysis of parrhēsia
Education in an Age of Limits
No full textIt is now evident that the earth’s ecology and social systems cannot sustain continued expansion of capitalist productivity, consumerism, and neoliberal notions of progress based on market fundamentalism, the commodification of society, and the privatization of public goods. Neoliberal policy, based on an ideology of unbounded self-interest, endless growth, and expansion released from any notions of constraint are environmentally and ethically indefensible. This view of endless growth sees “the world as something that exists only to gratify human desires” (Lasch, 1991, p. 527) and has perpetuated exploitative, colonial-imperial policies and political arrangements that favor dominant groups (Torres, 2017). This paper makes the case for curriculum theorizing to envision forms of ecocentric and justice-oriented consciousness education that starts from the premise of the need for environmental limits, while emphasizing social justice and democratic practices, to forge solidarity across political movements
MeToo and the Problematic Valor of Truth: Sexual Violence, Consent, and Ambivalence in Public Pedagogy
No full textIn this paper, the authors consider the #MeToo movement as an act of public pedagogy. They read #MeToo as an example of a public curriculum that speaks back to, and simultaneously participates in, the posttruth era associated with the Trump presidency. What are the public pedagogical and curricular implications of this outcry against sexual assault and harassment? What about understanding education’s complicated relationships with truth and consent? Using the Time Magazine article, The Silence Breakers, and the curriculum documents organized under the hashtag #MeTooK12, Clarke-Vivier and Stearns explore the relationship between public conversations about sexual violence and notions of truth, consent, and education
Children’s “Mis”behaviours: An Ethical Engagement with the Mystery of the Other
No full textStudents’ non-conforming and “difficult” behaviours are often conceptualized through a pathologizing lens of “disability” (as informed by developmental psychology), medicalizing and, thus, legitimizing “mis”behaviour in a move that upholds the normal order of things. Using Sharon Todd’s theorizing (influenced by Levinas) on ethical relationships with the Other, alongside a snippet of teacher interview data from a research project, Janzen theorizes what it might mean for this ethical relationship between teachers and “mis”behaving students to be framed by the notion of mystery, arguing that a relationship with the Other enacted through a stance of mystery is necessary in maintaining the alterity (difference) of the Other, and is premised on openness and listening. Thus, rather than the dehumanizing and objectifying efforts of seeking to know the child through assessments and diagnoses, ethical relationships between teachers and students must be premised on an acknowledgment and curiosity of differences
We are All Donald Trump: Dis/entangling from the Us/Them Binary in Education
No full textIn this paper, the authors engage in an ethico-onto-epistemological imagining of dis/entanglement from the gridlock that the us/them binary and Cartesian subject created in education. They move instead towards relationality and response-ability and argue that it is helpful to imagine that we are all Donald Trump. In doing so, we are confronted by our own contributions to injustices in a post-truth era and can envision and act towards healing and flourishing relationships. Specifically, this helps us theorize how we might engage ethically with our secondary students and pre-service teachers with whom we may disagree politically
A Love Letter to Black Mothers
No full textA Love Letter to Black Mothers is a tribute to the writing/theorizing of Mamie Till-Mobley and Sybrina Fulton, Black mothers who have changed how we talk about, think through, and act against state sponsored violence against Black bodies. Situating the present moment through Sharpe’s (2016) conception of living “in the wake” that she defines in multiple senses of that word, I first explore what it means to live in constant fear of death as a Black mother and what it means that Black bodies are always connected to danger and disaster. I then propose that the memoirs of Till-Mobley and Fulton offer a praxis of mothering in the wake, a pedagogy for resisting death—physical and psychic—and caring for ourselves and our children in/against a genocidal culture.
Bellies that Go Bump in the Night The Gothic Curriculum of Essential Motherhood in the Alien Movie Franchise
No full textFor centuries, authors and storytellers have used Gothic tales to educate readers about all manner of subjects, but one of the most common of those subjects is the question of what it means to be human (Bronfen, 2014). In these classic Gothic tales, a key focus is also the horrific results of an out-of-control and “unnatural” form of reproduction. These stories reveal a kind of social anxiety centered on “marriage or on social and sexual relations between the sexes” and explore how those relations are “threatened or abrogated” due to changes in the culture (Riquelme, 2000, p. 585-6). The Gothic obsession with essential motherhood is used to illustrate for the audience what it means to be essentially female, and it is an obsession that has continued into modern day. Although much has changed regarding the role of gender, sexuality, and motherhood in contemporary, Western society, our Gothic stories continue to explore portrayals of essential, heteronormative motherhood, which are used to teach a presumed young male audience about modern womanhood. One iconic example of such a modern-Gothic story is found in the Alien movie franchise. In this paper, the author examines the first four films in this franchise in order to investigate how the concept of essential motherhood impacts the ultimate definition of womanhood depicted in these films. The the film series is shown to establish certain cultural “truths”: essential motherhood is a cultural reality; our culture is not comfortable with a definition of womanhood outside of essential motherhood; and these issues may only be worked out among those who take up the mantle of womanhood as they talk with each other and figure out for themselves what it may mean to no longer be defined solely by their generative capacities