ABSTRACT
In the first edition of this collection, the purpose of this chapter was to describe and explain how a Derridean perspective was applied to educational practice through a small school-based research project. The project sought to investigate whether, and if so, how, a deconstructive approach might be used in a school curriculum context. The project involved the development of a curriculum unit about a stretch of English coastline with a class of students aged 12–13 and two geography teachers. Part of the unit aimed to introduce students to ‘an-other’ Whitby, one that they had not experienced through their holiday visits or through traditional geographical study. Activities involved deconstructive language games, an interdisciplinary study of Whitby jet, the power and politics of the explorer James Cook and the portrayal of the town in the novel ‘Dracula’. Findings indicated that opportunities existed to escape traditional versions of the school geographical curriculum, but these were both driven by and constrained by the dominant performative culture and the subject identities of teachers. In the second edition, I reflect on the project to provide a rationale for methodological decisions, to glimpse the challenges researchers face in bridging the theory–method dyad, and to offer thoughts about future curriculum research.
