Education Within the Ruins: What the Infra-Ordinary Can Teach Us About Rupture and Repair

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Histories, Museum Studies, and Postfoundational Thought (Table 5)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread disruptions, deeply impacting education. Schools, striving for normalcy, restructured while clinging to traditional human-centric practices. Repair efforts prioritized replicating conventional schooling through virtual platforms, perpetuating inherent inequalities. This inquiry examines prosaic moments of rupture and repair in schools, drawing from George Perec’s concept of the “infra-ordinary.” We theorize on disruptions in networked classroom lives during the pandemic to understand nostalgia for the dysfunctional past in education. This exploration highlights how the pursuit of normalcy, rooted in neoliberal capitalism, distanced us from meaningful change. We propose a posthumanist ethics that expands the human to consider new relationships beyond anthropocentric notions of liberty and oppressive practices confining human and nonhuman bodies' imagination.

Authors

• Darshana Devarajan, Michigan State University

• Sandro Barros, Michigan State University