From Desks to Desktops: A Genealogical History of the Evolving Functions of Pedagogical Power

• In Event: 34.032 - Post-Structural Approaches to Educational History

Abstract

This paper enlists a Foucauldian power/knowledge reading of schooling, leveraging various notions such as knowledge, power, and subjectivity, to historically analyze ways in which pedagogical sites (the body, institution, and larger taken-for-granted educational practices) become the pivotal point through which students’ growth is fostered or resisted. In doing so, we seek not to write a history of the governing language of institutional policies (which may have silenced internal subjectivities and moralities), “but rather the archaeology of that silence” (Foucault, 1988, p. xi). Moving from desks to desktops, we trace a particular space/time lineage to unearth the role of pedagogical power as a defining force shaping social values and knowledge practices which then subsequently program a knowledgeable citizenry of subjectivities.

Authors

• David L. Carlson, Arizona State University

• Anna Montana Cirell, Arizona State University - Tempe

• Joshua M Cruz, Arizona State University - Tempe

• Joseph D Sweet, Arizona State University

• Adam T Clark, Arizona State University