Hidden Curricula of Place: Entangling of Racism, Erasure, and Resistance

• In Event: Beyond Liberation: Philosophies, Politics, and Desires in Reimagining Education

Abstract

This project utilized posthumanism to explore the role of a school as an agent and curricular actor along with how youth challenged and resisted racism, erasure, and deficit framings. The research question was: how does Vantage High operate as a curricular agent, and how did youth resist deficit framings? I utilized critical ethnographic methods to be immersed within Vantage high (e.g., three classrooms and afterschool programs over the three years), attune to relationships among participants (human, non-human and discursive), and be attentive to larger issues of power and domination. I diffractively read the entrance, the school’s wall of fame, and a student generated installation through theory and one another. Findings illustrate how the school surveilled students, reinforced and centered whiteness, and worked to erase the contributions of students of color to the larger Vantage community. Students also utilized curricular interventions, curricular un/makings, to challenge/unmake the deficit curriculum.

Author

• Thomas F Albright, Georgia State University