Refusal as a Praxis of Teaching Inclusively

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Creating Critical and Inclusive Spaces in the Teaching Profession (Table 36)

Abstract

As the teaching profession gets eroded by the normative grooves of the assimilationist project of schooling, we explore what it might mean for teachers committed to inclusivity and freedom to sustain themselves and their practices. We turn towards the possibilities of refusal as a praxis of teaching inclusively. In this paper we figure refusal as the everyday acts and utterances against the disciplinary regimes of the normative, including racial injustice. We think with two artifacts from our inquiry that demonstrate one teacher’s acts and utterances of refusal and complaint as generating speculative possibilities for teaching, as well as for sustaining teachers.

Authors

• Maddie Neufeld, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Amanda Najib, New York University

• Srikala Naraian, Teachers College, Columbia University