Everybody but Foucault: How Alternative Poststructuralisms Operate in Educational Theory, Policy, and Practice

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium proposes to play with commonplace poststructuralist arguments that are grounded in Foucauldian notions of subjectivity, discourse, and power as they relate to educational policy, pedagogy and practice. We intend to capture the spirit of various theoretical tools embedded in alternative poststructuralisms by demonstrating “how” to use poststructuralist theoretical tools, particularly from those theories we consider “other-than” Foucauldians. The four papers here engage with alternative poststucturalisms as method and inquiries in material spaces, in effect offering contributions for teaching and learning practice, e.g. social studies education, community-school partnerships, and early childhood education. It is our intention to offer alternatives to examinations grounded exclusively in Foucault as a way to explore lived spaces or the “matter” that previous scholarship misses.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Foucault and Education

Chair

• Yasin Tunc, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Papers

• Jean Baudrillard Did Not Take Place: What Poststructuralism’s Least Respected Theorist Can Teach Us About Social Studies Education - David W. Kupferman, University of Hawaii West Oahu

• “I Do Activist Things in Some Moments Even Though I’m Nothing”: Conceptualizing Immigrant and Undocumented Youth Identity as if They Encounter a Deleuzian Fold - Sophia Rodriguez, Loyola University Chicago

• Postfoundational Theories as Methodologies of Practice: Innovative Approaches to Understanding the Educational Subject of Difference - Suniti Sharma, Saint Joseph's University

• Foucault’s Matter: Education, Subjectivity, and Political Ecology - Marek Tesar, The University of Auckland

Discussant

• Stephen J. Ball, Institute of Education - London