“And a take-apart seal in a pear tree…”: MACOS and Material Histories of Playful Pedagogies

• In Event: Virtual Poster Session
  In Virtual iPresentation Only: Division B - Section 6: De/Colonization and Transformative Curriculum Studies Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

The current paper traces the pathways to which curriculum theorizing takes place within historic context and is eventually materialized into specific curricular objects. Revisiting the history of Jerome Bruner’s Man: A Course of Study (MACOS) curriculum, my specific point of analysis is the course’s pedagogic use of learning games and toys. I analyze the course as a pedagogy of play-things, within larger structures of coloniality and epistemic privilege. I consider the materiality of play-things in relation to the curriculum and its embedded civilizationism, epistemic excess, and (mis)representation of communities of color. In conclusion, I invite readers to consider the distinction between a pedagogy of play versus pedagogy of play-things, and to imagine emancipatory futures for play.

Author

• Nicole K. Weinberg, Texas Christian University