Curriculum Development as Humanistic Practice: Teaching “In the Midst” of Neoliberal Alienation

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Abstract

We examine experiences of fourteen secondary humanities teachers subject to educational systems that enforce neoliberal notions of teacher accountability and student learning and who experience alienation from their professional community and pedagogical labor, including their process of curriculum development and conversation with students. Despite the alienating conditions, these teachers, informed by a teacher preparation course focused on reconceptualist curriculum theory and interdisciplinary humanities curricula, develop curriculum that fosters meaningful subjective engagement with literary texts, aesthetic objects, historical narratives, and their interdisciplinary contexts. We conceptualize their curriculum work as a humanistic practice “in the midst” of neoliberal alienation, as teaching that significantly, if temporarily, disarms neoliberal imperatives and recovers a sense of the complexity of inner experience and social relationality.

Authors

• Brian Casemore, The George Washington University

• Rachel Talbert, Teachers College, Columbia University