Individual Presentation or Panel Title

Imagined Conversations: Curriculum and Representation

Abstract

If the self is enacted relationally, curriculum theorists must consider how we can engage in the process of affirming—rather than erasing—the selves of others. This paper will explore how curriculum theorists represent others through dialogue. Although Pinar and Spivak never directly engaged in conversation as fellow curriculum theorists, this paper places the two theorist’s ideas in conversation with one another in order to see what productive possibilities may be found in the gap between their positions on conversing with others. While Pinar (2009) encourages complicated conversation as a curricular tool, Spivak (1988/1994) questions whether Western humanist grammar prevents the subaltern from speaking. Pinar desires a complicated conversation that may ultimately be impossible; Spivak, in contrast, despairs that the subaltern will never be able to speak when the conversation is predicated upon dominant epistemologies. Despite this concern, they each continue to engage with others in a process of dialogue and relationship that suggests less distance between the two theorists than might initially be assumed. Rather than flattening their ideas to force synthesis, this paper will use Pinar and Spivak’s understandings of curriculum and dialogue to explore the ways that we produce ourselves and the selves of others relationally. Participants will enter into the dialogue to consider how relational conversation might occur in many, varied forms.

Presentation Description

This presentation asks participants to imagine a dialogue between two well-known theorists: Gayatri Spivak and William Pinar. The presenter will briefly introduce Pinar and Spivak’s work to set up an imagined conversation on how we produce the self through engagement with others. Their differing ideas demonstrate the multiple ways that relational engagement might be enacted. Participants will then contribute to this imagined conversation by speaking/writing/sketching themselves into dialogues chosen from the works of our two imagined conversationalists, Pinar and Spivak.

Keywords

dialogue, curriculum, Pinar, Spivak, relationality

Publication Type and Release Option

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Imagined Conversations: Curriculum and Representation

If the self is enacted relationally, curriculum theorists must consider how we can engage in the process of affirming—rather than erasing—the selves of others. This paper will explore how curriculum theorists represent others through dialogue. Although Pinar and Spivak never directly engaged in conversation as fellow curriculum theorists, this paper places the two theorist’s ideas in conversation with one another in order to see what productive possibilities may be found in the gap between their positions on conversing with others. While Pinar (2009) encourages complicated conversation as a curricular tool, Spivak (1988/1994) questions whether Western humanist grammar prevents the subaltern from speaking. Pinar desires a complicated conversation that may ultimately be impossible; Spivak, in contrast, despairs that the subaltern will never be able to speak when the conversation is predicated upon dominant epistemologies. Despite this concern, they each continue to engage with others in a process of dialogue and relationship that suggests less distance between the two theorists than might initially be assumed. Rather than flattening their ideas to force synthesis, this paper will use Pinar and Spivak’s understandings of curriculum and dialogue to explore the ways that we produce ourselves and the selves of others relationally. Participants will enter into the dialogue to consider how relational conversation might occur in many, varied forms.