Dear Foucault and Education SIG Members:

There was a time when submitting a proposal to AERA in which Foucault’s name appeared proved a daunting process. In response to the challenge and to the growing interest in undertaking Foucaultian research, the Foucault and Education SIG was established. However, it is now 2010 and the SIG has seen a dramatic drop in proposals submitted each year. We have traced the drop to the following reasons:

1) A change in the landscape of educational research has re-marginalized much Foucaultian scholarship in education. Compared to the early 2000s, the number of AERA papers with Foucault being featured heavily has dropped significantly, while “scientifically based research” and policy analysis has trended upward.

2) A surge in interest in other theories that are perhaps connected to Foucault but not Foucaultian in nature. For example, in conversations with many SIG members past and present, the work of Derrida, Deleuze and Guattari, Badiou, Agamben and many others have featured more prominently in current scholarship than they have before.

 3) And perhaps the most significant reason of all: we have been successful in mainstreaming Foucaultian scholarship! In San Diego, Foucault appeared in sessions dedicated to qualitative research methodology, history of/in education, and many others. Instead of submitting through the SIG, these proposals were submitted to and accepted by other groups and divisions. This is evidence of our success!

Given the current landscape, the Foucault and Education SIG members present at the 2009 business meeting proposed and accepted the notion of changing the name of the group both to reflect the changing interests of its members and the field at large, and to drive the continued clearing out of space for work that challenges the status quo. The SIG leadership would like to gather feedback from more of its members and collect votes on the following proposed names:

Contemporary Social Theory and Education
Contemporary and Post-Foundational Theories and Education
Foucault and Contemporary Theory in Education
Foucault and Poststructuralism in Education
To enter your vote, click here: http://www.doodle.com/h6q8uwffi5vsds39

We will publish the results of the vote via the listserv and on our SIG website ASAP.

Thanks for your continued dedication to the SIG.

Best,

Joshua J. Kurz, Co-Program Chair; Linda Graham, Co-Program Chair;  & Christine Clark, Communications Chair
———
Christine Clark, Ed.D.
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702.896.4529 Facsimile
702.985.6979 Cellular
 
"...In the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right." 

—Revered Joseph Lowery, Excerpt from the Benediction given at the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, January 20, 2009
                                                                                                                                     




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