Re/thinking Curriculum Inquiry in the Posthuman Condition: A Critical Posthumanist Stance

Petro Du Preez; Lesley Le Grange; Shan Simmonds

doi:10.25159/1947-9417/11460

Authors

Petro Du Preez North-West University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9100-6461
Lesley Le Grange Stellenbosch University
Shan Simmonds North-West University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/11460

Keywords:

complicated conversations , critical pedagogy, critical posthumanism , critical theory, curriculum inquiry, curriculum-as-lived, posthuman subjectivity, ubuntu-currere

Abstract

In the reconceptualisation era of curriculum studies, scholars drew on a range of theories such as existentialism, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, feminism, poststructuralism, and especially critical theory. They used critical theory as a lens to examine the influence of social and political forces on curriculum, in particular the role of dominant ideologies on schooling and higher education in capitalist societies. In this article we explore some of the limitations this has, especially with regard to the current posthuman condition, without repudiating all the benefits that it has offered. Then we re/think curriculum studies in the posthuman condition, drawing on insights from a particular strand of posthumanism, critical posthumanism. We experiment with the real, as well as with what a reconceptualised subject (one that is ecological) might mean for curriculum inquiry in South Africa. In our exploration, we re/think the curriculum concepts: curriculum-as-lived, curriculum as complicated conversation, and currere.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biographies

Petro Du Preez, North-West University

Petro du Preez is a Professor in Curriculum Studies in the Faculty of Education at the North-West University.

Lesley Le Grange, Stellenbosch University

Lesley le Grange is a Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University.

Shan Simmonds, North-West University

Shan Simmonds is a Professor in Curriculum Studies in the Faculty of Education at the North-West University.

References

Aoki, T. 1993. “Legitimating Lived Curriculum: Towards a Curricular Landscape of Multiplicity”. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision 8 (3): 255–68.

Aoki, T. 1999. “Interview: Rethinking Curriculum and Pedagogy”. Kappa Delta Pi Record 35 (4): 180–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/00228958.1999.10518454. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00228958.1999.10518454

Aoki, T. 2004. “Layered Understanding of Orientations in Social Studies Program Evaluation”. In Curriculum in a New Key: The Collected Works of Ted T. Aoki, edited by W. Pinar and R. Irwin, 168–86. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410611390. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410611390

Barad, K. 2007. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv12101zq. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv12101zq

Barad, K., and G. Daniela. 2021. “Political Desirings: Yearnings for Mattering (,) Differently”. Theory and Event 24 (1): 14–66. https://doi.org/10.1353/tae.2021.0002. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/tae.2021.0002

Braidotti, R. 2011. Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

Braidotti, R. 2013. The Posthuman. Malden, MA: Polity Press.

Braidotti, R. 2018. “Posthuman Critical Theory”. In Posthuman Glossary, edited by R. Braidotti and M. Hlavajova, 339–42. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Braidotti, R. 2019. Posthuman Knowledge. Malden, MA: Polity Press.

Braidotti, R. 2020. “‘We’ Are in This Together, But We Are Not One and the Same”. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 17: 465–69. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-020-10017-8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-020-10017-8

Braidotti, R. 2022. Posthuman Feminism. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Braidotti, R., and M. Hlavajova. 2018. Posthuman Glossary. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Césaire, A. 1955. Discours sur le colonialism. Paris: Présence Africaine.

Deever, B. 1996. “If Not Now, When? Radical Theory and Systematic Curriculum Reform”. Journal of Curriculum Studies 28 (2): 171–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/0022027980280204. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0022027980280204

Ellsworth, E. 1989. “Why Doesn’t This Feel Empowering? Working through the Repressive Myths of Critical Pedagogy”. Harvard Education Review 59 (3): 297–324. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.59.3.058342114k266250. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.59.3.058342114k266250

Fanon, F. 1967a. Black Skins, White Masks. New York, NY: Grove Press.

Fanon, F. 1967b. Towards the African Revolution. Translated by H. Chevalier. New York, NY: Grove Press.

Freire, P. 1972. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin.

Horkheimer, M. (1937) 1968. Traditionelle und Kritische Theorie: Vier Aufsätze. Frankfurt: Fischer. https://doi.org/10.5840/zfs19376265. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/zfs19376265

Jahn, B. 2021. “Critical Theory in Crisis? A Reconsideration”. European Journal of International Relations 27 (4): 1274–299. https://doi.org/10.1177/13540661211049491. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13540661211049491

Johnson, J., ed. 2013. Introduction to Dark Trajectories: Politics of the Outside, edited by J. Johnson, 5–11. Hong Kong: [Name] Publications.

Le Grange, L. 2015. “Currere’s Active Force and the Concept of Ubuntu”. Keynote address at the triennial conference of the International Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies (IAACS), University of Ottawa, May 26–30.

Le Grange, L. 2016. “Sustainability Education and (Curriculum) Improvisation”. Southern African Journal of Environmental Education 32: 26–36. https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/152718/142307.

Le Grange, L. 2017. “Contemporary Curriculum Theories and Their Influence on Teaching and Learning”. In Education Studies for Initial Teacher Development, edited by L. Ramrathan, L. Le Grange and P. Higgs, 112–24. Cape Town: Juta.

Le Grange, L. 2018a. “What Is (Post)Qualitative Research?” South African Journal of Higher Education 32 (5): 1–14. http://doi.org/10.20853/32-5-3161. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20853/32-5-3161

Le Grange, L. 2018b. “The Notion of Ubuntu and the (Post)Humanist Condition”. In Indigenous Philosophies of Education around the World, edited by J. Petrovic and R. Mitchell, 40–60. New York, NY: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315173603-3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315173603-3

Le Grange, L. 2018c. “Spinoza, Deep Ecology and Education Informed by a (Post)Human Sensibility”. Education Philosophy and Theory 50 (9): 878–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2017.1384723. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2017.1384723

Le Grange, L. 2018d. “A (Re)Turn to Realism(s)”. Educational Philosophy and Theory 50 (14): 1594–595. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2018.1461424. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2018.1461424

Le Grange, L. 2019. “Currere’s Active Force and the Concept of Ubuntu”. In Internationalising Curriculum Studies: Histories, Environments and Critiques, edited by C. Hébert, A. Ibrahim, N. Ng-A-Fook and B. Smith, 207–26. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01352-3_13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01352-3_13

Le Grange, L. 2022. “Global Citizenship Education and the (Post)Human Condition”. In Comparative Education for Global Citizenship, Peace and Shared Living through Ubuntu, edited by N. Assié-Lumumba, K. Bedi, M. Cross and Y. Ekanayake, 28–41. Leiden: Brill.

Manning, E., and B. Massumi. 2014. Thought in the Act: Passages in the Ecology of Experience. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. https://doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816679669.001.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816679669.001.0001

Meillassoux, Q. 2008. After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency. Translated by R. Brassier. New York, NY: Continuum. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350252059. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350252059

Mies, M., and V. Shiva. 1993. Ecofeminism. London: Zed Books. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350219786. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350219786

Murris, K., and V. Bozalek. 2022. “Dis/Identification”. In A Glossary for Doing Postqualitative, New Materialist and Critical Posthumanist Research across Disciplines, edited by K. Murris, 58–59. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003041153-29. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003041153-29

Parikka, J. 2018. “Antropocene”. In Posthuman Glossary, edited by R. Braidotti and M. Hlavajova, 51–53. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Pinar, W. F. 1975. “The Method of Currere”. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Washington, DC. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED104766.pdf.

Pinar, W. F. 2004. What Is Curriculum Theory? Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Pinar, W. F. 2011 The Character of Curriculum Studies: Bildung, Currere and the Recurring Question of the Subject. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137015839_9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137015839_9

Pinar, W. F. 2013. “The Reconceptualization of Curriculum Studies”. In The Curriculum Studies Reader, 4th ed., edited by D. Flinders and S. Thornton, 149–56. New York, NY: Routledge.

Ramose, M. 2009. “Ecology through Ubunto”. In African Ethics: An Anthology of Comparative and Applied Ethics, edited by M. F. Murove, 308–14. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.

Slattery, P. 2013. Curriculum Development in the Postmodern Era: Teaching and Learning in an Age of Accountability. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Routledge.

Snaza, N., and J. Weaver, eds. 2016. Posthumanism and Educational Research. New York, NY: Routledge.

Tuck, E., and W. K. Yang. 2012. “Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor”. Decolonization, Indigeneity, Education and Society 1 (1): 1–40.

Tyler, R. 1949. Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.