Curriculum Work and Social Justice Leadership in a Post-Reconceptualist Era: Attaining Critical Consciousness and Learning to Become (Studies in Curriculum Theory Series)

This book urgently confronts systems of privilege and oppression within education, and combines concepts including bifocality, currere, and conscientização to highlight the role of dialogical and autobiographical reflection in dismantling neoliberal and colonial logics at the level of theory, policy, and practice. The author purposefully connects methods and concepts from curriculum, social studies and the arts, and offers insights into identity formation, social position, and social transformation. As such, Jales Coutinho presents an opportunity for curricularists to evaluate the connections between their lives and their work within and across mutually-constitutive discursive and material contexts, and critically analyze their agency, their relational encounters, and their position as changemakers within unjust social realities. Focusing on the intersection of curriculum theory with educational policy and leadership, the text calls for a mutual "becoming conscious" to illustrate how this can affect a paradigmatic shift toward social justice education, lived curriculum, and emancipatory pedagogy. With the potential to expand and set the tone for a long-standing curriculum conversation for curriculum theorists, educational leaders and policymakers concerning the contours and dimensions of our work in schools, research institutions, and policy circles, it crucially asks: what does it mean to engage in the complicated conversation of curriculum work in a post-reconceptualist era? This book urgently confronts systems of privilege and oppression within education, and combines concepts including bifocality, currere, and conscientização to highlight the role of dialogical and autobiographical reflection in dismantling neoliberal and colonial logics at the level of theory, policy, and practice. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 Foreword 8 Acknowledgements 16 1. Introduction 18 2. Engaging in the complicated conversation of curriculum work in a post-reconceptualist era 26 2.1. Bifocalizing “Self” and “Work” as unfolding lexis, within and across contexts 31 2.2. Disrupting single thoughts 34 2.3. Confronting fears 40 2.4. Forging nexus 53 2.5. Fortifying nexus 65 2.6. Working across differences 77 2.6.1. Refusing denials 84 2.6.2. Talking with 97 2.7. Confronting dangers 104 3. A short autobiographical account about conscientização: Critically bifocalizing “self” and “work” to learn to become 118 4. Reconceptualizing the concept of “informed dialogue” in policy circles: Embracing curriculum “as lived” 127 4.1. Informed dialogue: perceiving curriculum (and everything else) as objects 132 4.1.1. The case of the school uniform 139 4.2. Complicated conversation: perceiving curriculum as subject 144 4.2.1. The case of schools’ cameras, doors, and soccer courts 148 4.2.1.1. School cameras 149 4.2.1.2. Schools’ doors 152 4.2.1.3. Schools’ soccer courts 157 4.3. A lingering note 162 5. Valorizing the autobiographical con(text) in curriculum work to learn to become 175 6. Conclusion 188 Index 192 Curriculum,studies;,critical,policy,studies;,leadership,studies;,educational,policy;,social,justice;,critical,consciousness;,Freire;,critical,bifocality;,bifocalization;,currere;,Pinar;,intersectionality;,neoliberal,globalization;,systemic,racism;,structural,racism;,autobiography;,hidden,curricula;,lived,curriculum;,curriculum-as-lived;,conscientização;,Aoki Curriculum studies,critical policy studies,leadership studies,educational policy,social justice,critical consciousness,Freire,critical bifocality,bifocalization,currere,Pinar,intersectionality,neoliberal globalization,systemic racism,structural racism,autobiography,hidden curricula,lived curriculum,curriculum-as-lived,conscientização,Aoki "This book urgently confronts systems of privilege and oppression within education, and combines concepts including bifocality, currere, and conscientização to highlight the role of dialogical and autobiographical reflection in dismantling neoliberal and colonial logics at the level of theory, policy, and practice. The author purposefully connects methods and concepts from curriculum, social studies and the arts, and offers insights into identity formation, social position, and social transformation. As such, Coutinho presents an opportunity for curricularists to evaluate the connections between their lives and their work within and across mutually-constitutive discursive and material contexts, and critically analyze their agency, their relational encounters, and their position as changemakers within unjust social realities. Focusing on the intersection of curriculum theory with educational policy and leadership, the text calls for a mutual "becoming conscious" to illustrate how this can affect an ontological shift toward social justice education, lived curriculum, and emancipatory pedagogy. With the potential to expand and set the tone for a long-standing curriculum conversation for curriculum theorists, educational leaders and policymakers concerning the contours and dimensions of our work in schools, research institutions, and policy circles, it crucially asks: what does it mean to engage in the complicated conversation of curriculum work in a post-reconceptualist era?"-- Provided by publisher