Understanding Curriculum Epistemicide

Table Of Contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Authors’ Affiliations
• Endorsement
• PRELUDE: Complicated Conversations on Curriculum Epistemicide: Apertures and Lingerings
• Bibliography
• PART I Openings
• Introduction to the Sweep of Epistemicide (Richard D. Sawyer)
• Curriculum Epistemicide: The March of Western Progress
• The Trajectory of Epistemicide
• Formal Curriculum and Epistemicide in the Global Context
• Formal Curriculum and Epistemicide in the United States Context
• Educational Policy and Curriculum Epistemicide: Agents of Regulatory Discourses
• The Stories We Tell About Curriculum: Framings of Epistemicide
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Currere as a Curriculum of Flowability (Wanying Wang)
• Story 1
• Story 2
• Currere as a curriculum of flowability
• First, this curriculum of flowability portrays “a fluid self”
• Second, autobiography guided by currere is no story of success or progression, nor is it linear, measurable as in mathematics and it describes invisible changes
• Third, though curriculum of flowability does not describe a self that is fixed, it provides access to one’s inner world through attunement
• Fourth, self-knowledge fostered by this curriculum is ethical in itself
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Standardized Violence Curriculum and the Turpitude of “Average Ability” (Daniel Ness)
• Pseudo-Events
• Equivalence by Leveling
• The Iatrogenesists and Standards
• Rubrics: The Tool of Submission
• States’ “Sliding Proficiency Scale”
• Collateral Damage
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• PART II Epistemicide Otherwise
• What Knowledge is of Most Worth? Reflections on Israel, Gaza, Epistemicide, Truth, and the Banality of Evil (James P. Burns)
• Epistemicide as Genocide
• War, Truth, and “Crackpot Realism”
• What Knowledge is of Most Worth?
• Self-Knowledge and the Ethics of Exile
• The Banality of Evil
• Reparation
• Grievability
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• The Landless Movement and Erasure of Indigenous Knowledge in Brazil: The Struggle for Reclamation (Marco Cerqueira and Rodrigo Rossoni)
• The Formation of Privileges
• Narratives of Fear
• The Encounter of Brazilians
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Learning Otherwise: A Trauma(tizing) Curriculum (Mark Vicars)
• Introduction
• Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be Now? The Strangeness of Difference
• Making a Visible Difference: Ben’s Story
• The Curriculum Will Not and Does Not Define Me … so Why Does My Trauma?
• Bibliography
• Toward an Understanding of Psychic Speech: Unaware “Lack,” Interpellation, and Transcendence (Wanying Wang)
• My Teaching Story
• Unconscious and the Disavowal Knowledge
• The Concept of Psychic Speech
• Summary
• Why Does Education Discourse (Interpellation) Fail?
• First, Unconscious, Subjectivity, and Repetition
• Second, Ideological Interpellation, Remainder and Symptom
• Summary
• Discussion and Conclusion
• Bibliography
• PART III Lingering Stories
• Understanding a Curriculum of (Un)Becoming an Immigrant-Canadian Citizen (Nyein Mya & Nicholas Ng-A-Fook)
• Introduction
• Unknowing: Who Belongs?
• Oh “Canada…” Our Home on Native Lands!
• Snapshotting A Methodology: Currerian Exchanges
• Unbecoming an Immigrant Toward Becoming a “Canadian” Citizen
• #NarrativeSnapshot1 [Nicholas]
• DisComforting the Unbecomingness of Epistemological Forgetting Settler Colonialism
• (Un)Becoming Immigrant/Canadian Toward Becoming Treaty Peoples
• Note
• Bibliography
• Epistemicide Is Not Forgone: A/R/Tography as Liberation (Karenanna Boyle Creps)
• Introduction
• Context: Arts Education Epistemicide
• A/R/Tography
• Ars Poetica
• Epistemicide Is Not Foregone: A/R/Tography as Liberation
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Embracing Embodied Knowledge and Counter-Narratives: Currere Gardening Curriculum Against Epistemicide (Marco Cerqueira, Brandon Edwards-Schuth, & Adrianna Patricia Mitchell)
• Talking with Plants
• Paved Over; Exhume the Gardens
• Adrianna’s Shade Mongering
• Epistemological Horticulture
• Mother
• Colonialism and Capitalism
• Notes
• Bibliography
• PART IV Apertures
• Above and Beyond the “Curriculum of Poverty” and the “Poverty of Curriculum”: Itinerant Curriculum Theory and the Inevitable “Transcritique” in the Struggle Against the Epistemicide (João M. Paraskeva)
• Introit
• Coloniality and the “Unreason of Reason”
• Running on Fumes
• “The Goats Only Eat Where They Are Tied.”
• Delinking from “Curriculum of Poverty” and/or the “Poverty of Curriculum”
• Itinerant Curriculum Theory: Justice Against the Epistemicide
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Clickbait Curriculum Theory (William F. Pinar)
• Epistemicide
• Clickbait Capitalism
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Postlude
• Contributors

Richard D. Sawyer, Wanying Wang, and Daniel Ness (eds.)

Understanding Curriculum Epistemicide

Possibilities and Complicated Conversations

New York · Berlin · Bruxelles · Chennai · Lausanne · Oxford

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The German National Library lists this publication in the German National Bibliography; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Sawyer, Richard D., 1952- editor | Wang, Wanying (Writer on curriculum development) editor | Ness, Daniel, 1966- editor

Title: Understanding curriculum epistemicide : possibilities and complicated conversations / Edited by Richard D. Sawyer, Wanying Wang and Daniel Ness.

Description: First edition. | New York : Peter Lang, 2025. | Series: Counterpoints, 1058-1634 ; Volume 563 | Includes bibliographical references. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2025032697 | ISBN 9781636675541 hardback | ISBN 9781636675534 paperback | ISBN 9781636675558 pdf | ISBN 9781636675565 epub

Subjects: LCSH: Education--Curricula--Philosophy | Curriculum change--Philosophy | Knowledge, Theory of Classification: LCC LB1570 .U46 2025

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2025032697

Cover image: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/abstract-hand-painted-art-background-gm1081167358-289895225?searchscope=image%2Cfilm

Cover design by Peter Lang Group AG

ISSN 1058-1634

ISBN 978-1-63667-554-1 (Hardback)

ISBN 978-1-63667-553-4 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63667-555-8 (E-PDF)

ISBN 978-1-63667-556-5 (E-PUB)

DOI 10.3726/b23174

© 2025 Peter Lang Group AG, Lausanne (Switzerland)

Published by Peter Lang Publishing Inc., New York (USA)

info@peterlang.com – www.peterlang.com

All rights reserved.

All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.

Any utilization outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.

This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.

This publication has been peer reviewed.

We would like to dedicate this book to all the good people in curriculum theory who have fought for the value of difference in schools and curriculum.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prelude: Complicated Conversations on Curriculum Epistemicide: Apertures and Lingerings

PART I Openings

Introduction to the Sweep of Epistemicide

Richard D. Sawyer

Currere as a Curriculum of Flowability

Wanying Wang

Standardized Violence Curriculum and the Turpitude of “Average Ability”

Daniel Ness

PART II Epistemicide Otherwise

What Knowledge is of Most Worth? Reflections on Israel, Gaza, Epistemicide, Truth, and the Banality of Evil

James P. Burns

The Landless Movement and Erasure of Indigenous Knowledge in Brazil: The Struggle for Reclamation

Marco Cerqueira and Rodrigo Rossoni

Learning Otherwise: A Trauma(tizing) Curriculum

Mark Vicars

Toward an Understanding of Psychic Speech: Unaware “Lack,” Interpellation, and Transcendence

Wanying Wang

PART III Lingering Stories

Understanding a Curriculum of (Un)Becoming an Immigrant-Canadian Citizen

Nyein Mya & Nicholas Ng-A-Fook

Epistemicide Is Not Forgone: A/R/Tography as Liberation

Karenanna Boyle Creps

Embracing Embodied Knowledge and Counter-Narratives: Currere Gardening Curriculum Against Epistemicide

Marco Cerqueira, Brandon Edwards-Schuth, & Adrianna Patricia Mitchell

PART IV Apertures

Above and Beyond the “Curriculum of Poverty” and the “Poverty of Curriculum”: Itinerant Curriculum Theory and the Inevitable “Transcritique” in the Struggle Against the Epistemicide

João M. Paraskeva

Clickbait Curriculum Theory

William F. Pinar

Postlude

Contributors

Acknowledgments

It is understandably challenging to list all the individuals who were in some way involved in enabling the completion of this volume, and it is totally the responsibility and culpability of the editors for any omission that occurs in these Acknowledgments. The editors would like to thank the editorial team at Peter Lang. In particular, thanks go to Shirley Steinberg, Editor of the Counterpoints series with Peter Lang Publishers, for her ardent interest in taking this book on in her famous series. We would also like to thank Alison Jefferson, Acquisitions Editor for Education at Peter Lang. Ali has been instrumental in ensuring that the production process goes as smoothly as possible. We are grateful to all the authors who made this book come to fruition. Thank you, James P. Burns, Marco Cerqueira, Karenanna Boyle Creps, Brandon Edwards-Schuth, Adrianne Patricia Mitchell, Nyein Mya, Daniel Ness, Nicholas Ng-A-Fook, João M. Pareskeva, William F. Pinar, Rodrigo Rossoni, Richard D. Sawyer, Mark Vicars, and Wanying Wang. Finally, thanks go to our past, current, and future curriculum students, who’ve made our voyage in complicated conversation all the more adventuresome.

Authors’ Affiliations

James P. Burns, University of New Mexico

Marco Cerqueira, Texas A & M University

Brandan Edwards-Schuth, Augusta University

Karenanna Boyle Creps, Michigan State University

Adrianne Patricia Mitchell, Washington State University, Pullman

Nyein Mya, University of Ottawa

Nicholas Ng-A-Fook, University of Ottawa

Daniel Ness, St. John’s University

João M. Paraskeva, University of Strathclyde

William F. Pinar, University of British Columbia

Rodrigo Rossoni, Universidade Federal da Bahia

Richard D. Sawyer, Washington State University, Vancouver

Mark Vicars, University of Victoria

Wanying Wang, St. John’s University

Endorsement

Understanding Curriculum Epistemicide is a vital and timely collection that fearlessly confronts the ongoing and now intensified erasure of distinct cultural knowledge and worldviews. This book offers deep insights and powerful scenes for understanding epistimicide and its impact on educational well-being, and thus also on our ability to shape a multi-vocal, multi-genre narrative of humans being in just and peaceful relationships to one another. In the face of a massive campaign for ignorance, these thought-provoking essays provide a powerful call to action. We must continue to cultivate critical thinking, embrace complexity, keep writing, and stay in conversation not simply as a matter of resistance, but also to give time, energy, and breath to manifesting the beauty and possibility that might emerge as the commons-not-yet.

—Denise Taliaferro Baszile

Dean and Professor, College of Education, Wayne State University

On the whole, this book is historically and conceptually situated ‘everywhere and nowhere all at once’ in the best possible way. The assemblage of divergent chapters invites the reader to take a ride down a curricular rabbit hole of side doors, bridges, secret passages, tunnels, and traps that move between and across various authors and differing perspectives. Thick, rich, and complex, the sum is greater than its parts. The book is mapped as a recursive experience with which the reader will find themselves reading, and then (re)reading again, a kaleidoscope of theories; you will leave with a different perspective each time. The wide array of positionalities gnaws at the fringes of what we want to grapple with (as a society) about power, language, knowledge, and existence. In an era where cruelty is cool and truth holds a dubious second place to social media narratives, epistemicide–though not a new idea--has taken on more powerful layers and shades in our global present. This book is a ‘call to onto-epistemological arms’ to resist complacency and compliance. To paraphrase a line from a character from the movie The Addiction (1995), “Feuerbach wrote that all men counting stars are equivalent in every way to God,” and in this current age of epistemicide, “Our indifference is not the concern - It’s our astonishment that needs studying.” This book invites us to do just that.

—Morna McDermott McNulty

Professor, College of Education, Towson University

Curriculum, at heart, embodies the social application of epistemology, or the study of the nature and limits of knowledge. Societies across the globe have invented, excavated, and shaped themselves by telling future generations what knowledge matters and why. This collection takes a vital step in further understanding what knowledge gets propagated by unpacking intra- and intersocial conflicts that too often erase ways of knowing. Readers interested in curriculum studies will find much food for thought in an era of politicization and conflict that ranges from the local to the global.

—James Wolfinger

Dean and Professor, The School of Education, St. John’s University

PRELUDE Complicated Conversations on Curriculum Epistemicide: Apertures and Lingerings

This was a challenging book to work on. Delving into the particulars of epistemicide—the disposability and erasure of epistemologies, human beings, and culture—has been chilling. Emerging hallmarks of the twenty-first century—the relentless bombing of cities, the dismantling of democracies, the projection of hate as kindness, and the masquerading of lies as truth—the totalitarian hell we find ourselves in—these relentless realities became the backdrop to this book. But working with the different authors in this book, we found hope in dialogue within an intellectual community. We want to thank everyone who contributed and even considered contributing to this book. These writers showed us in their chapters that this is not the time to hide from devastating realities. And we want to thank you, the reader, for beginning this book.

We live in “a golden era”: proliferating social media, AI that can write essays and papers, emerging multifaceted—however unchallenged—viewpoints and perspectives. We seem to become more “identical” with what we have glimpsed—even immersed, with what we have been propagandized, if not unconsciously interpellated. A bridge from our fantasy to the empirical reality becomes increasingly invisible and “misty,” a path that is being blurred intentionally or inadvertently. What is the reality? What is our fantasy? Are we living in a bubble world made of understanding yet to be molded and transformed, bias that has never been tested but affecting us unconsciously, propositions that purposefully meet our imagined fantasy? How can we get out of this bubble world? How can we stay awake? How can we find or attune ourselves to a more existential understanding? Fantasy is not what is not yet. Our suggestion is to challenge, to interrogate, to engage in discussions, with erudite contemplation and open mindedness.