Journal of Curriculum Theorizing
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Engaging Graduate Students throughout the Research Writing Process
No full textThe purpose of this article is to encourage graduate students and committee members to examine how they approach research writing, and whether or not their approach propels or hinders graduate candidates from moving forward in their research. We reflect on our experiences as PhD candidates and a graduate research committee chair in order to spark a discussion about the value of the research writing process and how that process should incorporate best practices in order to allow graduate candidates to explore questions in their field without having to fear perfection or judgment along the way. We explore themes that were created after collecting and analyzing data on a professional songwriter’s process and how those themes are applicable to the completion of graduate-level research. After reflecting on the research and the process of writing up research, we created five pointers that can be applied to graduate research writing (A) low-stakes writing is an integral part of the process, (B) trust is vital, (C) co-writes/collaborative creativity and conversation drive the process forward, (D) take small risks, and (E) know the genre. Writing is possibly the single most important skill a graduate candidate will have to develop and refine during his/her program. Taking highly effective writing strategies and applying them to graduate level programs could prove to be beneficial to all parties involved
Lingering on Aoki’s bridge: Conceptualizing curriculum as techno-theological text
No full textTed Tetsuo Aoki (1919-2012) was a Japanese-Canadian educator who spoke compellingly against the technological-instrumental implementation of curriculum found within the business-consumer model of education. In his greater mission of understanding curriculum and instruction, Aoki has tried new modes of interpretation, seeing curriculum as currere, praxis, ideology, as plan, as lived. One possibility implied in Aoki’s work is inhabiting the space in-between materiality and spirituality, more specifically between technology and theology. As Aoki might ask: how we can linger on the bridge between technology and theology? The purpose of using the bridge metaphor, is to discern lines of movement in Aoki’s writings which bridges technology and theology. We are asked to pause, delay ourselves in true conversations and discern Aoki as a possible curricular techno-theologian. Within this reconceptualization, we may understand the way Aoki’s curricular possibilities allow us to dwell in a technological world which does not default into instrumentalization.
Provoking Dialogues: Worth Striking For
No full textAt the 36th Annual Bergamo Conference on Curriculum Theory and Classroom Practice, a Provoking Dialogues session was held on Worth Striking For: Why Education Policy is Every Teacher’s Concern (Lessons from Chicago), written by Isabel Nuñez, Gregory Michie, and Pamela Konkol. Curriculum scholars took up various sections of the book as part of a larger discussion on School Reform: What is the current paradigm of neoliberal school reform that educators are working under, and what possibilities are there for undermining this paradigm in support of public schooling? The following essay is comprised of the thoughts of those scholars. We encourage you to continue to engage with these authors and each other to keep the fight going
On Securitization Rhetoric, Critical Literacy, and Affirming Teaching: A Philosophical Exploration
No full textThis article explores the theoretical ramifications of securitization on critical literacy and teaching, linking the high stakes assessment movement and the rhetoric of security with the development of a culture of fear in classrooms. It can be argued that the current culture of fear actually makes for less secure and supportive classes, but a focus on affirming teaching through critical literacy and dialogue offers a curricular space for reclaiming the classroom
An Essay Review of Deborah Britzman's 'A psychoanlyst in the classroom: On the human condition in education'
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Roles of Affect and Imagination in Reading and Responding to Literature: Perspectives and Possibilities for English Classrooms
No full textIn this essay, we argue that to engage in critical readings of literary texts, in ways that are also ethical and compassionate, requires readers to enter emotionally and imaginatively into the complex, textual worlds of others as they are portrayed in stories. In this regard, we discuss both past and recent work of scholars whose insights we believe are useful for rethinking and deepening what it means to read and respond to creative narratives with “one’s heart as well as with one’s mind.” Given the popularity in recent years of teaching literary theory, and embracing the power of “critical” reading in English classrooms, the value of personal and emotional ways of reading has been increasingly understated. We thus call for the kind of engaged humanities reform we believe is ultimately crucial to democratic forms of community rooted in a general concern for the value of the lives of others
The Trouble With Reader-response Theory in Reading Multicultural Literature: A Critique of Dana Fox’s and Kathy Short's Stories Matter
No full textThis book review of Kathy Short’s and Dana Fox’s collection of essays on multicultural literature (Stories Matter, 2003) offers a summary of the views expressed and finds that authors in the debate over what counts as multicultural literature take up either a reader-response approach or cultural studies approach to reading literature. Edited by two of the major figures on multicultural literature in education today, Stories Matter raises a number of important disagreements and confusions over definitions of multicultural children’s literature that continue to be debated over today. The book review offers a useful summary and provides a framework for making sense of the many voices in this debate
The Pedagogy of the Student: Reclaiming Agency in Receptive Subject-Positions
No full textIn this article, I bring feminist theories, queer theories, and disability studies into dialogue with critical pedagogy by exploring the ways in which Freire constructs receptivity on the part of students as undesireable. Using Freire’s schema of objectification, I first look at how disabled people are objectified and then use this as a springboard for exploring Freire’s figuration of the student as a passive receptacle of knowledge. Making an analogy between Freire’s receptacle-students and its roots in Plato’s theory of the receptacle, I draw upon feminist theorists in order to challenge prevailing conceptions of the receptacle and to argue for tactically claiming receptivity as a subject position. Rather than merely taking on an active, masculine role, I suggest that both students and teachers need to be receptive to the Other and to the possibilities of being changed by the knowledge that they receive. Finally, I use these ideas of receptivity to explore the possibility for disabled subject positions within critical pedagogy
Applied Benjamin: Educational Thought, Research and Pedagogy
No full textOur interest in this essay is how Walter Benjamin might be of use in efforts to shift the imaginary of educational thought, research and pedagogy in the contemporary moment, what might be called “applied Benjamin” (Menninghaus, 1999, p. 200). Within poststructural work in education, Benjamin will be situated as a precursor where he has much to say about a variety of topics: language production and translation; interpretation, allegory and storytelling; image, representations and the “aura”; memory, remembrance and narrative; urban modernization and commodification; historical knowledge (truth) and discontinuity; praxis and progress (historical); and “dialectical” images. After a brief introduction to Benjamin, the essay will survey the ways he has been, and might still and yet be put to use in education. We will then unpack the central themes of such application in terms of how his work can be used to articulate a different sort of thought, research and pedagogy in education
Book Review: An Activists Handbook for the Education Revolution: United Opt Out's Test of Courage
No full textAn Activists Handbook for the Education Revolution: United Opt Out's Test of Courage (McDermott, Robertson, Jensen, & Smith, 2015) makes the case for why we must challenge the privatization and corporate take-over of our public schools and explains how to go about doing just that. The book is written by a small group of activists who take a stand on behalf of children and the craft of teaching to reclaim the promise of public education grounded in our democratic ideals of equality, access, empowerment, and possibility. The publication serves as an invaluable resource for anyone interested in confronting inequality providing useful ideas for research, advocacy, and organizing for educators and non-educators alike. Although the collective public voice is not strongly represented in the text, this is likely to change as the public becomes increasingly informed and pushes back against political and corporate interests - important future work for United Opt Out.Keywords: Opt out, high-stakes testing, standardized testing, free public educatio