Strange Things: Inquiries Into the Curriculum of the Weird and the Eerie

• In Event: 28.091 - Sheraton Roundtable Session Two - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 28.091-6 - Critical Issues in Curriculum: Everything Great and Small

Abstract

Many educational practices attempt to make the strange familiar, familiarizing learners with the ways of the world—from how things work (science and mathematics) to why things are why they are in the world (history and social studies). Our inquiry in this paper considers what happens when curriculum remains with(in) the strange. We focus on the weird, when something is present that does not belong, and the eerie, when something is absent when we expect it present. We demonstrate how these two forms of curriculum engage affects of fascination, unease, and dread. Drawing on cultural studies, we examine pedagogical features of four case studies of the weird and eerie across contemporary popular culture texts as forms of curriculum.

Authors

• Mark Helmsing, George Mason University

• Gabriel Stephen Huddleston, Texas Christian University