Reframing Learning to Teach Diversity: Multicultural Curriculum within a Cosmopolitan Context

This qualitative study explores the possibilities of reframing multicultural teacher education in the context of critical cosmopolitanism. I examine the ways in which 34 pre-service and in-service teachers learn to teach diversity and multicultural issues in their curriculum. I use three sets of coursework materials, including course discussions, small group presentations, and midterm and final papers to investigate their conceptualisations of diversity and equity issues in education. I present two salient themes as they reframe to teach diversity by reviewing both local and global conflicts: (a) analysing the frame of recognition and (b) revisiting the notions of self-other and interrelationality. Butlerian theory of recognisability provides an important theoretical and pedagogical approach for exploring the conditions of recognition as liveable life, rather than focusing on what works best for increasing teachers’ cosmopolitan awareness. Teacher education programmes could benefit from critical cosmopolitanism when implementing a theoretical and pedagogical strategy for teaching diversity within a global context

The Paradox of Post-Postmodernism

Educators live in a paradoxical space of Tao and wuwei: Tao is not Tao once it is labeled. Post- postmodernism resides in this unknown space—space where multiple, unknown angles exist in creating us-ness (which is never a uniformed, exclusive format of it). Indeed, a paradox is and is not post-postmodern

The ARtS Community without Community: Imagining Aesthetic Curriculum for Active Citizenship

This article is about teaching art-based inquiry and equity pedagogy. The author introduces an aesthetic-inspired afterschool curriculum in the urban context in the United States and theorizes the meaning of active citizenship and community. Conceptually framed by “community without community,” this article explicates the ways in which the ARtS children (Aesthetic, Reflexive thoughts, & Sharing) investigated the meanings of community through dance, poetry, and clay art. The author imagines and theorizes community that goes beyond emphasizing solidarity and a collective “we”-ness in the pursuit of social transformation. Rather, the author argues that “community without community” could be an important framework to revisit children’s exploration of community, self-other, and active citizenship. The ARtS initiative opens up the possibility of valuing diverse epistemologies and calls for releasing the imagination for a different community. Most notably, the notion of community without community leaves open the possibility of reconceptualizing existing community and its vision for creating new communities always open to possibilities

Wuwei (non-action) Philosophy and Actions: Rethinking ‘actions’ in school reform

This inquiry aims to enrich conversation regarding school reform. The author asks about what other discourses are possible when the action-oriented question of how to ‘act’ is a major approach to ‘fix’ current educational problems. Drawing from Taoist philosophy of wuwei (non-action), the author provides a frame to review current school reform movement. Political philosophy of wuwei highlights non-interference or non-intervention governance. Laozi discusses his theory of governance that a sage leader should take and explicates the paradox of non-action: By not doing, everything is done. The paradox of wuwei complicates dialogues in the field of curriculum theory by opening spaces for taking effortless actions in the midst of standardization and accountability reform movement

Seodang: A Pilgrimage Toward Knowledge/Action and Us-ness in the Community

The purpose of this article is to present a Korean theory of epistemology and to provide an epistemological embodiment of Korean epistemology as it appears in a traditional, local village school called a seodang. A seodang’s curriculum is grounded upon individualized instruction and whole person education and emphasizes mutually respectful relationships that sustain supportive local communities. I have attempted to create an intersection between cultural elements present within Korea’s indigenous knowledge and innovative research methodology by making use of multilingual representations, visual interpretations of the text, and cultural poetry. By weaving together these two stripes of epistemology and methodology, I underscore the value of ethno-epistemology in curriculum and cultural studies as well as the need to imagine multi-linguistic, visual representations of Korean epistemology. Major texts and images taught in seodangs are interwoven with these articulations as a means of examining methodological concerns in curricular and cultural studies

“Active Citizenship Is an Awesome Party!” Creating In-Between Spaces for the School-Community-University Partnership

An arts-based afterschool program is introduced in advancing children\u27s democratic citizenship and a sense of community

Donghak (Eastern Learning), Self-cultivation, and Social Transformation: Towards diverse curriculum discourses on equity and justice

This inquiry aims to advance curricular discourses on equity and social transformation by reviewing Korea’s indigenous philosophy and religion, Donghak [東學 Eastern Learning]. I explicate the ways in which the democratic ideals of equity and justice were implemented in nineteenth- and twentieth-Korean society, founded upon the “my mind is your mind” [吾心卽汝心] ontology. Three major philosophical-theological concepts are investigated, including serving God in the subject [侍天主 Shi-chun-ju], keeping a pure mind and correcting the energy [守心正氣 Sushim-jungqi], and creating a new cosmic world [開闢 Gae-byeok]. These concepts extend curricular discourses on equity, social transformation, and community in the crisis of market-oriented curriculum practices. Garnered from Donghak’s teaching, suggestions for curriculum theorists encompass: challenging the self–other dichotomy, including self-cultivation as an important curricular goal, and supporting an eco-centered life and its curriculum in the twenty-first century

Poststructural Theorizing of “Experiences”: Implications for Qualitative Research and Curriculum Inquiries.

This paper was to investigate urgent issues in qualitative research, specifically the ontological conundrum that researchers commonly encountered in depicting experience and social reality. The turn to “experience” has expanded the modes of qualitative research by hearing “marginalized” voices, and thus increasing cultural awareness. Based on the review over multiple approaches to “experience” to enrich conversation in qualitative research, three major approaches to “experience” were identified, drawn from phenomenology, narrative inquiry, and critical ethnographic studies. This examination provided a platform to explore complex meanings of experience, defined by poststructuralist theories: (a) experience as discursively constructed, (b) experience as non-linear development, (c) experience as performative acts, and (d) experience as (im)possible representation. To conclude, I examined two major implications of poststructuralist theories to develop different epistemological and ontological approaches to qualitative research—namely (a) interrogating experience built upon discursive subjectivity construction and (b) rethinking and restructuring experience differently. By debunking a normative approach to experience, I encourage qualitative researchers to revisit habitual ways of theorizing experience, while releasing their methodological imagination in qualitative research

Teaching Equity Through “Gatsby” in the Age of CCSS

Influenced by CCSS, the authors provide options for teachers who share the need to design curriculum to incorporate more perspectives in the classroom

Complicated narratives of “Korean-ness”: Towards strategic provisionality in parental involvement

The purpose of this paper is to advance the discourse on parental involvement drawing from Butlerian notion of strategic provisionality. In developing a new approach to understanding cultural differences and their relation to Korean parental involvement, the authors analyze qualitative and quantitative data from five New York metropolitan elementary schools. The authors examine the ways in which ‘Korean-ness’ and Korean parental involvement are discursively constructed and embodied in sociopolitical and historical contexts in the United States. We present two themes related to Korean parental involvement: (a) the double-edged component of respect for teachers and (b) biopolitics related to English language and parental involvement. By challenging normalized understanding about Korean-ness, the authors suggest a different approach to ethnoepistemology in order to enrich discourses concerning parental involvement and ethnic/racial studies