Place and Praxis in the Radical Imaginary of Self-Directed Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

As educators eager to construct educational possibilities, we bring together self-directed education (SDE) researchers to discuss the lived curriculum practiced in educational spaces in which learners are not segregated by age and there are no assigned teachers, set curriculum, defined outcomes or imposed assessments. Presenters share how literacy and numeracy develop organically in SDE and how the curriculum of self-directed makerspaces is determined by the student’s desire to solve problems. Further, we chronicle how both teachers and Black homeschooling families exercise their agency as fugitives from a school system that are “part and parcel of the larger projects of settler colonialism and white supremacy/racism” (Stovall, 2018, p. 51) to create places of autonomy, self-direction, and belonging.

Sub Unit

• Division B - Curriculum Studies / Division B - Section 5: The Places and Praxis of Curriculum

Discussant

• Peter Gray, Boston College

Papers

• Learning From SDE (Self-Directed Education) Practitioner-Experts: Radically Imagined Places and Praxis - Matthew J. Shumski, University of Oregon

• Exploring Deschooling and Teacher Transformation in Self-Directed Education Spaces - Cammie Justus-Smith, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Problems as a Driver of Self-Directed Makerspaces - Sarah Margalus, Washington and Lee University

• Are We Ready for School “Abolition”? Fugitive Places of Self-Direction in Contemporary Black Homeschooling - Joby Gardner, DePaul University; Ariel Sylvester, DePaul University; Thomas Noel, Morgan State University

• How the Environment of Self-Directed Education Fosters Numeracy - Maryam Vahid Dastgerdi, Learning Planet Institute; Melissa Riley Bradford, DePaul University