This book brings together some of the newest work in curriculum studies to explore central questions that swirl inside (and out) of the field:
What counts as curriculum research?
What procedures are considered legitimate for the production of knowledge?
What forms shape the making of explanations?
What constitutes proof?
It forefronts work by curriculum theorists who are interested in looking at educational problems from a vantage point that questions current models of research--one that suggests adopting "lines of flight" or multiplicities that offer promise to disentangle curriculum theory from traditional research hierarchies and methods-driven dependence on formalities.
In Expanding Curriculum Theory: Dis/positions and Lines of Flight:
*The essays are connected by their shared concern for combining alternative methodologies, such as textual analysis, discourse theory, hermeneutics, and post-structuralism with perspectives on race, class, gender, and sexual orientation.
*Disciplinary boundaries are blurred as curriculum theory is interwoven with cultural studies, political theory, psychoanalysis, dance, technology, and other fields.
*To assist readers in understanding the various essays, as well as comparing, contrasting, and connecting them with each other, each chapter opens with a "Thinking Beyond" section. The questions posed are designed to make the text engaging and pedagogically friendly.
By doing all this within an overall poststructural framework that encourages and demonstrates creativity, multidisciplinarity, and new lines of flight, this volume makes a unique contribution to expanding curriculum theory. It is a stimulating text for students, faculty, and researchers in the field.
William M. Reynolds is professor of curriculum studies in the department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading at Georgia Southern University. He has authored, co-edited, and co-authored books, including Reading Curriculum Theory: The Development of a New Hermeneutic, Understanding Curriculum as a Phenomenological and Deconstructed Text, Inside/Out: Contemporary Critical Perspectives in Education, Understanding Curriculum: An Introduction to the Study of Historical and Contemporary Curriculum Discourses, and Curriculum: A River Runs Through It.
Julie A. Webber is an assistant professor of politics and government at Illinois State University. Her research focuses on the intersection of politics and education, especially theories of violence and education. She is the author of Failure to Hold: The Politics of School Violence
