Abraham DeLeon

Contemporary anarchist studies : an introductory anthology of anarchy in the academy

Anarchism, as humanism, is today more relevant than ever, more than at the time of its delivery to the labor movement, more than during the outbursts of heroic rebellion, more than in the era of its exemplary role during the war. It finds its resurgence in modern thought, philosophy, and sociology; among economists and thinkers of all languages and climates; in the nonconformist youth that is shaking the old pillars of society that refuses to be community. All this will and should be reinforced by anarchism like a humanist flag, without adjectives. Here lie the root and the strength to build a better world, a world of the twenty-first century in which we live already. 2

Are We Simulating the Status Quo? Ideology and Social Studies Simulations

Reflective educators try to devise ways to make classroom learning more experiential and engaging for their students. Simulations allow students to experience situations they might face outside of the classroom. Advocates of simulations purport that they are one of the most effective ways of teaching new concepts and ideas because they allow for participation, engagement, and the opportunity for risk-taking in a safe environment. But as critical research has demonstrated, social studies texts often reproduce dominant ideology. This article critically analyzes two text-based simulations, Skyjack and House Design, for their latent and manifested ideological content. The data demonstrate that simulations create and sustain their topic through ideological reproduction. The article ends with suggestions on how teachers can employ simulations in building a critical social studies pedagogy.

Oh No, Not the “A” word! Proposing an “Anarchism” for Education

Anarchist theory has a long-standing history in political theory, sociology, and philosophy. As a radical discourse, anarchist theory pushes educators and researchers towards new conceptualizations of community, theory, and praxis. Early writers, like Joseph Proudhoun and Emma Goldman, to more contemporary anarchists, such as Noam Chomsky, have established anarchist theory as an important school of thought that sits outside the Marxist discourses that have dominated the radical academic scene. Today, anarchists have been responsible for staging effective protests (specifically, Seattle, 1999) and have influenced autonomous groups like the Animal Liberation Front in their organizational and guiding philosophies. Interestingly, anarchism is glaringly absent from the literature in educational theory and research. In this article, I highlight aspects of anarchist theory that are particularly applicable to education, and also establishes specific ways that anarchist theory can inform ones own educational praxis. Specifically, I employ the anarchist framework of direct action and micro-level strategies, such as sabotage, that challenge people to resist the oppressive practices found in institutions today.

How Do I Begin To Tell a Story that Has Not Been Told? Anarchism, Autoethnography, and the Middle Ground

As a testament to the growing literature on autoethnography and my own connections to systemic and direct racism, this article is a therapeutic way to explore my past through the ancient way of telling, testifying, and developing knowledge through narrative inquiry. Testimony opens new ways of looking at the world by participating in a subversive form of scholarship. Indigenous scholars have claimed that stories play a vital role in transmitting who we are. Through my experiences, I explore the concept of “the middle ground” and the spaces of identity created by complex relationships of power. Similar to the literature on borders, “go-betweens” dance across worlds and exist in spaces wrought with alienation, discovery, transmission, and cooperation. I also argue that anarchist theory and praxis can inform larger autoethnographic writing, pushing radicals to include narrative inquiry into their own communities and praxis through an exploration of self. In this way, we can begin the difficult process of theorizing from our own locations that includes moments of intense pain, shame, and triumph that life sometimes brings us.

Anarchist theory as radical critique: Challenging hierarchies and domination in the social and "hard" sciences

Anarchism, as humanism, is today more relevant than ever, more than at the time of its delivery to the labor movement, more than during the outbursts of heroic rebellion, more than in the era of its exemplary role during the war. It finds its resurgence in modern thought, philosophy, and sociology; among economists and thinkers of all languages and climates; in the nonconformist youth that is shaking the old pillars of society that refuses to be community. All this will and should be reinforced by anarchism like a humanist flag, without adjectives. Here lie the root and the strength to build a better world, a world of the twenty-first century in which we live already. 2

Nomadic Teaching, Vagabond Dreaming: An Examination of the Spaces That Schools Might Become

What we seek to engage here are the multiple spaces of schooling—as it shifts architecturally, geographically, and increasingly virtually—through a critical geographical lens as has been done elsewhere (e.g., Aitken 2001; Nespor 1997; Squires and Kubrin 2005; Tate 2008). Adding to this work, we wish to strengthen an examination of how teachers might find new networks of power and subjectivities—using the interlocking concepts of the vagabond, the nomad, and imaginal machines—of historically situated bodies that perform and become teacher. How might the teacher as vagabond—forced increasingly into this role by a reconceptualized and hollowed out professional trajectory—find fulfillment and the necessary discursive components to shepherd students in a newly constituted profession? In response to the above question, this article outlines alternative ways in which to think of the practices that teachers commit to—with students and as public intellectuals. We seek, also, to rethink the subjectivities available to us at this point of neoliberal capitalism. In other words, we think of this article as an intervention for producing new ways to rethink the relationships we form while also reconsidering our places in this world. As the career becomes more contingent, the work of recapturing meaning in teaching (and being ‘‘teacher’’) points toward the nomadic, the purposeful engagement with learning for becoming, rather than learning for testing; that is, the practices that will foster the reconceptualization of identities that think outside of market parameters. The key point to a nomadic subjectivity is movement, placing bodies in motion, allowing for transformative experiences to occur through the practices and experiences of perpetual forces and flows (Deleuze and Guattari 1984; Manning 2007). Movement intrigues us as critical scholars, allowing us to envision alternative educational relationships and practices because it does not allow for stagnation; movement can allow other possibilities to arise. In other words, what might be one way we rethink the very becoming of teachers such that ‘‘a flourishing life’’ becomes the goal, not only of pedagogy for students, but also as a model for a fulfilling career in the classroom. This would appear to be a direct rebuttal to The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 37:4–20, 2015 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1071-4413 print=1556-3022 online DOI: 10.1080/10714413.2015.988489

Wooden dolls and disarray: rethinking United States’ teacher education to the side of quantification

ABSTRACT According to the 2013 report by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), most teacher education programs are failing in the United States. These programs, NCTQ insists, are not preparing new teachers with sufficiently ‘scientific’ methods and are, in the process, failing to properly train prospective teachers how to ‘lead the classroom’ (p. 2). In the deficit discourses employed by NCTQ, teacher education programs have become a cesspool of ‘mediocrity’ (p. 1) where the overall findings ‘paint a grim picture of teacher preparation in the United States’ (p. 17). We actually agree that things are grim, but for very different reasons and in very different spaces. Using NCTQ’s ‘Teacher Prep Review: A Review of the Nation’s Teacher Preparation Program’ as an entryway, the authors argue that the report typifies not only an alarmist approach usually found in conservative attempts at social policy and reform, but also further reifies quasi-empirically based research as the best (indeed the only) method by which to measure effective teacher education programs. The authors deconstruct the taken-for-granted assumptions within the NCTQ text, challenging quantification as a research/policy paradigm while arguing for the value of newly imagining educational possibility through risk and creation.

BOOK REVIEW of The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism

ing and research fit remarkably well with the rest of Cross’historical look at policy development and the politics that shaped their creation. The penultimate chapter serves as a final look back on the broader trends in educational policy and how they might have come into being in a more cohesive fashion. The final chapter allows Cross to speculate on what issues will continue to play a role in federal educational policy in the future. Both chapters showcase Cross’ experience and his dedication to education. In sum, Christopher Cross’ work will help educators of all stripes to better understand the how, why, and who of federal education policy. His sober analysis of contentious issues is unlikely to offend even the most ideological of readers. The only question that remains from Cross’ work is: “Why has education become a political and divisive issue?” It seems that people in their home states and citizens from across the nation could come to a consensus that would allow more focus and resources to be directed toward instruction and effective research, and less attention on protecting political territory or increasing inequality through legislation. Yet, this question is rhetorical and obviously naïve, since common sense and common ground in education are often lacking—as anyone who reads the stories Cross recounts will be able to attest.