Acknowledging Delinquency in Educational Research

• In Event: Roundtable Session 1

Abstract

This essay draws from Foucault’s 1971-1972 Collège de France lectures to consider what they might offer educational research. In the series, Foucault outlines the slow consolidation of power within the political body of the State and the resultant ability of the State to regulate and wield fiscal, judicial, penal, and military power. He analyzes the historical development of the State’s repressive apparatus, focusing closely on the consolidation of State judicial and penal power, and how these corroborating developments produce delinquency. We take up delinquency to consider what we call “delinquent inquiry.” Ultimately, we posit that delinquent inquiry tugs at the status quo and questions taken-for-granted presuppositions and repressive apparatus that so frequently oversee educational research practices.

Authors

• Joseph D Sweet, University of North Carolina - Pembroke

• Zachary S. Laminack, University of North Carolina - Pembroke