Applying Foucault to Qualitative Inquiry in Education: Looking at Resistance as Opportunity for New Knowledge

• In Event: Roundtable Session 65

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

Michel Foucault (1970/1966) wrote that a science of man is impossible unless we examine how individuals represent themselves within society’s power structures. Do they feel integrated or isolated from society? Why is it important to study “everything he arranges around him by way of objects, rites, customs, discourse” (p. 357) in order to understand how human behavior constitutes “a coherent whole and system of signs” (p.357)?
In this interactive session, presenters discuss use of Foucault to examine marginalization of adolescent readers, aging women, and educators compensated by merit pay as resistance to societal norms, arguing that careful attention and analysis of the daily practices of individuals within these groups create opportunity and an “opening” for new knowledge in qualitative research.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Qualitative Research

Chairs

• Elizabeth A. St. Pierre, University of Georgia

• Alecia Youngblood Jackson, Appalachian State University

Papers

• “Cougardom” as Resistance: Using Michel Foucault’s Discipline Theory to Understand Identity Construction of Aging Women - Allisa Abraham Hall, University of Georgia

• Crafting Fictions and Subjects: Foucault’s Care of the Self and Adolescent Fanfiction Writers - Amanda L. Hodges, Newberry College

• Teachers’ Newest Punishment: Using Foucault’s Discipline Theory to Construct New Meaning of Merit Pay’s Implications - Kevin Schneider, University of Georgia

• Emersonian and Foucauldian Resistance: A Qualitative Document Analysis of Scholarly Texts - Michael D. Boatright, Colorado State University