ABSTRACT
In Critical Curriculum Studies I have made a series of arguments about the relationships between epistemology, curriculum, and the politics of knowledge, in the process advancing a conception of what I've called curricular standpoint. I began with a discussion of tensions within curriculum studies (Chapter 1) and followed with an explanation of the dialectics of consciousness, essentially framing out a dynamic, interactional, and inseparable relationship between humans and our social and physical environments (Chapter 2). I then discussed what amounts to two implications of this conception of consciousness. First, I took up what it means for how we think about the curriculum, arguing for a definition/conception of curriculum as a form of complex environmental design (Chapter 3). Second, I interrogated how the social nature of consciousness and knowledge implicate the politics of the curriculum, resulting in my application of standpoint theory to curriculum studies (Chapter 4) and curricular practice (Chapter 5). In the process, I have brought critical theory and critical application to curriculum studies in a unique way and made some headway in advancing a theoretical justification and explanation of teaching for social justice by actively including the standpoint of the marginalized or oppressed in the curriculum. In a sense, and as I alluded to in the title of Chapter 5, I essentially argued for the necessity of teaching a curriculum of the oppressed, an argument that hinges on the idea that there is some relationship between what we learn (or what knowledge we access in our educational environments) and our consciousness, which in turn also relates to our praxis in the world.
