Deleuze and Guattari and Curriculum

Introduction

During the nineteenth century, cultural historian Jacob Burckhardt presciently asserted that “the essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity,” a denial manifested in much contemporary curriculum theory, policy, and practice. Teaching, learning, and curriculum making have been redefined by reference to a culture of accountability, performance, and measurability that ignores complex processes and outcomes, which are not readily apprehended or comprehended by conventional measurement technologies.

In the late 1960s, Gilles Deleuze began to formulate some of the philosophical significances of what is now known as “complexity” (and/or “complexity theory”) and many of the concepts he created (often in collaboration with Félix Guattari) have assisted curriculum scholars in acknowledging complexity and resisting the toxic politics of complexity reduction. This entry draws on selected examples of curriculum scholarship that play productively with Deleuze and Guattari’s...