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Curriculum Challenges and Opportunities in a Changing World pp 303–323Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Curriculum Design in the Anthropocene: Challenges to Human Intentionality

Part of the Curriculum Studies Worldwide book series (CSWW)

Abstract

New materialist and posthumanist thought present some key challenges for the imagined masculinist figure of the curriculum designer as rational planner. This chapter sketches the trajectory of this figure through curriculum theory and provides a feminist critique, drawing on the work of Rosi Braidotti and Karen Barad. With the aim of troubling the designer, the chapter contemplates whether ‘he’ can be thought differently, or must be relinquished. In this process, Braidotti and Barad are invoked in a reconfiguration of design as assemblage, and the designer’s agency as part of a more complicated picture. Poetry offers a concrete example of how arts-based research can both enact and represent this task. Ultimately, the chapter provides a grounding for other scholars and researchers to move beyond humanism to a lively and complex understanding of curriculum that is more responsive to the concerns of the Anthropocene. While this chapter is based on curriculum theory, it also has implications for systems that seek to reduce teachers to mere technicians, and offers teachers themselves ways to reconceptualise their work.

Keywords

  • Curriculum design
  • New materialism
  • Posthumanism
  • Feminism
  • Humanism
  • Poetry
  • Arts-based research
  • Rosi braidotti
  • Karen barad
  • Assemblage

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

    Lucinda McKnight

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  1. Lucinda McKnight
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Correspondence to Lucinda McKnight .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia

    Bill Green

  2. University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Philip Roberts

  3. University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

    Marie Brennan

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McKnight, L. (2021). Curriculum Design in the Anthropocene: Challenges to Human Intentionality. In: Green, B., Roberts, P., Brennan, M. (eds) Curriculum Challenges and Opportunities in a Changing World. Curriculum Studies Worldwide. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61667-0_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61667-0_18

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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