Counternarratives of Curriculum in Schools, Neighborhoods, and Communities in the South

Presentation given at the Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative Conference.

In this interactive curriculum dialogue symposium, a group of multiethnic practitioner researchers explore diverse forms of curriculum inquiry (e.g., oral history, fiction, graphic novels, documentary novels, memoire, poetry, comics, etc.) to dive into the life of schools, neighborhoods, and communities in the U. S. South. We particularly focus on the power of counternarratives to contest metanarratives that often portray the South as backward, deficient, and inferior. We explore how critical theory, Black feminist thought, womanism, Black protest thought, Black liberation theology, critical race theory, critical race currere, multiracial or mixed race theory, and indigenous or decolonizing theories empower us to tell silenced and neglected stories of repressions, suppressions, and subjugations that challenge stereotypes of Southern women, Blacks, and other disenfranchised individuals and groups and to examine the forces of slavery, racism, sexism, classism, religious repression, and other forms of oppression and suppression on the life and curriculum in schools, neighborhoods, and communities in the South. The major purpose of this presentation is to share experience of developing diverse forms of curriculum inquiry and to recognize the importance of, and ways of engaging in such a wide array of forms to embody a particular stance in relation to integrity, beauty, humanity, and freedom, to move beyond traditions and boundaries, and to embed inquiry in school, neighborhood, and community life to transform research into positive social and educational change. This is a continuation of dialogue on curriculum in the South.