Pedagogical Matters ─ New Materialisms and Curriculum Studies

This edited collection takes up the wild and sudden surge of new materialisms in the field of curriculum studies. New materialisms shift away from the strong focus on discourse associated with the linguistic or cultural turn in theory and toward recent work in the physical and biological sciences; in doing so, they posit ontologies of becoming that re-configure our sense of what a human person is and how that person relates to the more-than-human ecologies in which it is nested. Ignited by an urgency to disrupt the dangers of anthropocentrism and systems of domination in the work of curriculum and pedagogy, this book builds upon the axiom that agency is not a uniquely human capacity but something inherent in all matter. This collection blurs the boundaries of human and non-human, animate and inanimate, to focus on webs of interrelations. Each chapter explores these questions while attending to the ethical, aesthetic, and political tasks of education—both in and out of school contexts. It is essential reading for anyone interested in feminist, queer, anti-racist, ecological, and posthumanist theories and practices of education.

Nathan Snaza holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Minnesota and teaches literature, educational foundations, and cultural theory at the University of Richmond. Debbie Sonu holds an EdD from Teachers College, Columbia University, and is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Teaching at Hunter College, CUNY. Sarah E. Truman is a doctoral candidate in Curriculum Studies and in Book History and Print Culture at the University of Toronto. Zofia Zaliwska is a doctoral candidate in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Development at the University of Toronto.