Orienting Curriculum Materials Toward Restorative Justice in Early Literacy Classrooms

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session One
  In Roundtable Session: Centering Race and Identity in Writing and Literacies (Table 9)

Abstract

Amidst increased state curriculum reforms that censor reading materials and promote standardized “Science of Reading” policies, we ask in this paper: what rights do early childhood teachers and students have in curriculum making, and to the very materiality of their own classrooms? We examine one curricular material in practice in one early literacy classroom, using theories of materiality to explain its orientation, disorientation, and reorientation within discourses around anti-critical race theory and pro-science of reading legislation. Moreover, we aim to explore the potentialities of curricular materials as agents of restorative justice, and consequently, the threats to justice from the disorientations expressed around specific curriculum materials.

Authors

• Daniel E. Ferguson, George Mason University
  Presenting Author

• Bessie P. Dernikos, Florida Atlantic University
  Presenting Author