Activism and Social Movement Building in Curriculum

Author(s):  
Julie Gorlewski ◽  
Isabel Nuñez

Curriculum, while often conceived as a static entity delivered as a neutral set of facts arranged in disciplinary categories, is, in reality, a pedagogical artifact—a product generated as a result of decisions made by a range of stakeholders who represent different cultural imperatives linked to contested perspectives about the purposes of school. Students’ and teachers’ experiences of school, then, are dialogic performances of a curriculum that promotes various levels of power and privilege, as well as understandings of equity and diversity. Therefore, whether or not it is recognized, the curriculum delivered in schools serves to either maintain or interrupt the status quo. Given the number of students who participate in public education, curriculum contributes a great deal to shaping the national narrative. Curriculum contributes to social movements, and the nature of the curriculum determines the direction of the movement. Since curriculum development and implementation involves myriad decisions, influence is wielded by those with decision-making power. Social status and cultural capital, both of which are historically linked with political power, largely determine who makes curricular decisions, as well as how decisions are made. These conditions pose challenges for those who have been historically marginalized within educational institutions. Despite obstacles related to systemic inequities, different forms of curriculum can and do contribute to the creation and perpetuation of social movements. Moreover, educators who understand how educational institutions function, how curricular changes occur, and how curriculum can be a source of and vehicle for change can create conditions for transformative activist curricular movements.

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Lea Locke

The scholastic success of Bolongaia (Maria Lock), at the Parramatta Native Institution in 1819, arguably positions her as an academic giant. Bolongaia’s exam results challenged the opinions of the day when she ‘bore away the chief prize’. Bolongaia’s academic success was based purely on her acquisition of western based knowledges and values. In contrast, I was awarded a Masters of Indigenous Education in 2016. This academic achievement draws attention to a significant change in the positioning of Aboriginal Knowledges in the academy. This article is a letter to my ancestral grandmother, Bolongaia, to tell her about the Aboriginal women who have challenged the status quo of western based educational frameworks and research paradigms. This article honours the Aboriginal women who have paved a way for Aboriginal knowledges in mainstream educational institutions in ways that Bolongaia was unable to experience and perhaps even imagine in her lifetime.


Author(s):  
Ben Littlepage ◽  
Teresa Clark ◽  
Logan Stout

Four-year postsecondary education institutions in Tennessee have sought systemic balance during a period of unprecedented change as a result of Tennessee Promise, a last-dollar scholarship program. The present study explored how administrators at four-year private, not-for-profit, and public-assisted postsecondary educational institutions responded to the need for structural change, as defined by Buller (2014) and Kezar (2013), through the delivery of orientation services. Investigators found that administrators reacted to anticipated change differently. Administrators who embraced the change sought to control the situation, create a culture of innovation, and seek coherence when the status quo was disrupted.


Lateral ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jodi Melamed

A response to the forum, “Emergent Critical Analytics for Alternative Humanities,” edited by Chris A. Eng and Amy K. King. Jodi Melamed reassesses the analytic of institutionality, which has largely been theorized as a dominant tool of the university in incorporating the emergent and muting the oppositional. In particular, scholars in American and cultural studies have noted how universities responded to the revolutionary calls of radical social movements by institutionalizing ethnic and gender studies into compartmentalized sets of knowledge production. In so doing, the university worked to manage minority difference through flat notions of representation rather than redistribution. The interdisciplines of ethnic and gender studies then became additives to the humanities, upholding the status quo rather than compelling a radical re-envisioning of these academic structures altogether. On an even more macro level, Melamed identifies dominant discussions of institutionality that see global neoliberalism as a new, all-totalizing force. In problematizing how these theorizations elide considerations of the historical conditions of racial capitalism that make possible the ‘global,’ Melamed also excavates a genealogy of radical resistance that might allow us to rethink institutionality toward collective solidarity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-53
Author(s):  
Guoli Liu

With the advancement of high-quality education, the importance of physical education courses has been increasing. Traditionally, the teaching of sports which mainly teaches students' sports skills has mandatory learning characteristics. With the development and improvement of the physical education curriculum, the current public physical education curriculum in high schools is considered more scientific in terms of teaching content and form, focusing on the cultivation of students' interest in learning, and improving the students' various abilities and physical fitness. This article mainly analyzes the status quo of the curriculum of public physical education in high schools and proposes corresponding countermeasures.


Sociology ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003803852199697
Author(s):  
Narzanin Massoumi

Research on social movements shows a bias towards movements that oppose the status quo. Consequently, state–movement relations are primarily characterised as antagonistic. Where cooperative relationships are considered, the focus is on co-option and institutionalisation of movements. By contrast, this article focuses on social movements that support the status quo and how in their collaborations with governmental actors, they act as para-statal agencies. Drawing on findings from a multi-site ethnography examining the implementation of the UK Prevent counter-terrorism programme, I show how neoconservative think tanks and counter-extremism civil society organisations help to enact and extend Prevent as a distinct form of political repression. As such, this article gives close attention to the otherwise neglected role that non-state actors play in non-violent political repression. My argument builds on and extends emerging work analysing social movement activity beyond the prism of the ‘challengers versus authorities’ paradigm.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 697-714
Author(s):  
Judith A. Holton

PurposeThis study explores the efficacy of social movements thinking for mobilizing resources toward sustainable change in large-scale systems such as health and social services.Design/methodology/approachThe study proceeds from a critical realist perspective employing a qualitative multi-case study approach. Drawing on the tenets of grounded theory (i.e. constant comparative analysis and theoretical sampling), data from semi-structured interviews and field notes were analyzed to facilitate theoretical integration and elaboration.FindingsOne case study explores the emergence of social movements thinking in mobilizing a community to engage in sustainable system change. Data analysis revealed a three-stage conceptual framework whereby building momentum for change requires a fundamental shift in culture through openness and engagement to challenge the status quo by acknowledging not only the apparent problems to be addressed but also the residual apathy and cynicism holding the system captive to entrenched ideas and behaviors. By challenging the status quo, energy shifts and momentum builds as the community discovers shared values and goals. Achieving a culture shift of this magnitude requires leadership that is embedded within the community, with a personal commitment to that community and with the deep listening skills necessary to understand and engage the community and the wider system in moving forward into change. This emergent conceptual framework is then used to compare and discuss more intentional applications of social movements thinking for mobilizing resources for large-scale system change.Originality/valueThis study offers a three-stage conceptual framework for mobilizing community/system resources toward sustainable large-scale system change. The comparative application of this framework to more intentional applications of social movements thinking to planned change initiatives offers insights and lessons to be learned when large-scale systems attempt to apply such principles in redesigning health and social service systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (20) ◽  
pp. 202124
Author(s):  
Idair Augusto Zinke ◽  
Francisco Lima Mota ◽  
Cleiton Costa Denez

FROM PARTICIPATION SPACES TO COUNTERSPACES: an analysis of Councils in small municipalitiesDE ESPACIOS DE PARTICIPACIÓN A CONTRAESPACIOS: un análisis de los Consejos en los municipios pequeñosRESUMOEste artigo tem o intuito de averiguar os Conselhos participativos obrigatórios e sua possibilidade de conformação de contraespaços no âmbito de municípios com pequena ocupação populacional no Centro-Sul do Paraná. Para tanto, apresentam-se dados referentes à capacidade de criação de Conselhos participativos, a forma de inserção dos conselheiros, os segmentos que representam, a participação em movimentos sociais e organizações outras. Por meio do texto, demonstra-se que em municípios pequenos, apesar da possibilidade institucional de ampliar a participação social, há empecilhos que põem em risco a efetiva promoção de contraespaços, uma vez que a forma de inserção dos conselheiros é seletiva e a representação junto a estes espaços participativos atende aos interesses da atual administração municipal. Desta forma, a promoção de contraespaços como contestação da ordem territorial vigente e transformação do status quo, torna-se um desafio frente ao controle político do território e baixa atividade cívica da população em inserir-se de forma atuante nos Conselhos enquanto instrumento de contrapoder.Palavras-chave: Conselhos Municipais; Contraespaços; Municípios Pequenos.ABSTRACTThis article aims to investigate the mandatory participatory councils and their possibility of shaping counterspaces within municipalities with low population occupation in the Center-South of Paraná. For that, it presents data referring to the capacity to create participative councils, the form of insertion of the councilors, the segments they represent, the participation in social movements and other associations. Through the text, it is shown that in small municipalities, despite the institutional possibility of expanding social participation, there are obstacles that put at risk the effective promotion of counterspaces, since the form of insertion of councilors is selective and the representation together these participatory spaces meet the interests of the current municipal administration. In this way, the promotion of counterspaces as a challenge to the current territorial order and transformation of the status quo, becomes a challenge in the face of political control of the territory and low civic activity of the population in actively inserting themselves in the Councils as an instrument of counterpower.Keywords: Municipal Councils; Counterspaces; Small Municipalities.RESUMENEste artículo tiene como objetivo investigar los consejos participativos obligatorios y su posibilidad de configurar contraespacios en el ámbito de los municipios con baja ocupación poblacional del Centro-Sur de Paraná. Para ello, presenta datos referentes a la capacidad de crear consejos participativos, la forma de inserción de los concejales, los segmentos que representan, la participación en movimientos sociales y otras asociaciones. A través del texto, se muestra que en los municipios pequeños, a pesar de la posibilidad institucional de ampliar la participación social, existen obstáculos que ponen en riesgo la promoción efectiva de los contraespacios, ya que la forma de inserción de los concejales es selectiva y la representación conjunta de estos espacios participativos responde a los intereses de la actual administración municipal. De esta manera, la promoción de contraespacios como desafío al orden territorial actual y transformación del status quo, se convierte en un desafío ante el control político del territorio y la baja actividad cívica de la población al insertarse activamente en los Consejos como un instrumento de contrapoder.Palabras clave: Consejos Municipales; Contraespacios; Pequeños Municipios.


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