Book Talk: Walking Away: Refusing and Resisting Reactionary Curriculum Movements

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This panel will present a recently published collected work that emerged from storytelling among educators about how/when/why they have walked away from violence and erasure enacted in curriculum. These narratives, ranging from personal experiences to critiques of institutional failures, underscore the power of stories in shaping consciousness and fostering resistance. Drawing on Indigenous philosophy, critical theories, Black studies, LatinCrit, critical race theory, and forms of feminism, the chapter argues that stories are not just narratives but agents of change, capable of challenging oppressive systems and inspiring new educational practices. The panel will include the five editors of the book presenting a selection of chapters.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Critical Issues in Curriculum and Cultural Studies

Chair

• Kevin Donley, Georgetown University

Papers

• Pain and Paradox: A Diffractive Analysis of Refusal and Resistance in Urban Education - Alexander B. Pratt, University of Memphis

• Refusing Settler Grammars: Engaging Survivance to Create Possibilities - Sage Hatch, University of Oregon

• Developing a Confluence of Identity: A Reflexive Ethnography of Reading Literature as Rhetoric - Staci Lynne Tharp, Texas Tech University

• A Critical Reflection Recounting How Inner Voices Frequently are Conflicting Between Possibilities in Different Positionalities - Freyca Calderon-Berumen, Pennsylvania State University - Altoona

• Walking Toward Indigenous Pedagogies: Kənim a Teaching Tool to Enrich All - Rachel L Cushman, University of Oregon

Discussant

• MaryJohn R. Pachuta-Rysak, Grand Valley State University