Interrogating the Resilience of Curriculum Theory Conferences

• In Event: Curriculum History as Lived Practices

Abstract

In education, resilience is a term used sometimes to describe students who can navigate difficult experiences and systems (Condly, 2006, Fisher, Frey & Savtiz, 2019, Reeves, 2021). It can also characterize those who undergo “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences (APA, 2022). For curriculum theory as a field, resilience might explain its longevity, supported through the multitude of curriculum theory conferences which have emerged since the founding of the Bergamo Conference of Curriculum Theory and Practice. In this vein, William Doll began a graduate student conference at LSU in 1991, Curriculum Camp, focusing on the presentation of graduate student’s scholarship. In 2006, a year after Hurricane Katrina devasted much of the Gulf Coast, especially in Louisiana, LSU’s graduate student conference, Curriculum Camp, was revived from a multi-year hiatus. This presentation ponders the many permutations of curriculum theory conferences, and how those practices of contribute to the resilience of curriculum theorists.

This paper examines the practice of resilience of curriculum theory conferences, such as Bergamo, Curriculum and Pedagogy, Curriculum Camp, the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies, and the International Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies play in former CTP faculty and students’ interactions with the field and how they shaped their academic identities through four personal narratives. The authors’ examinations reveal the importance of conferences in serving as a homeplace, a place to grow internationally, and as a place to mentor and be mentored.

Author

• Jacqueline Bach, Louisiana State University
  Presenting Author