Teaching in disruptive bodies: finding joy, resistance and embodied knowing through collaborative critical praxis

Abstract

In the current political moment, a collision of a post-racial/diversity politics and the era of Trump, highlights the multiple risks of engaging in social justice pedagogies within teacher preparation. The era of Trump is defined by the dismantling of civil rights accompanied by unapologetic and overt displays of violence. In teacher education classrooms, these contradictory realities underscore the tenor of conversations on justice and education. Thus, for teachers in non-normative bodies this very moment exacerbates the risks of unveiling systems of oppression. This essay juxtaposes how two teacher educators imagine their bodies as tools for resistance while simultaneously having their bodies resisted. They propose a collaborative critical praxis as an intervention, a way to embody an alternative way of knowing and being that engages and disrupts contradictions in and violences upon non-normative bodies in teacher education. Using this method, the authors discuss both implications and possibilities of resistance for teacher preparation classrooms and pedagogy.

Keywords:

• Resistance
• embodied knowledge/pedagogies
• race/racism
• queerness
• narrative

Notes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Acknowledging this linguistically, we use “we” when communicating our shared experiences and commitments while using “I” to indicate our unique individual experiences.

2 This brief sentence alludes to a much larger intersectional identity analysis found in queer of color critique. For further reading, see Cohen (1997) and Ferguson (2004).

3 We would like to thank an anonymous reviewer who suggested thinking about the relationship between Johnson’s (2017) ideas on racial ghosts and haunting in relationship to Meiner’s (2002) work; Johnson posits that white people themselves are the ghosts, while people of Color are the haunted. Thus, in this instance while considering the intersections of queerness and whiteness, there is a need to question the relationship to both being haunted and being the ghost herself.

4 See Coates (2015).

5 We believe that critical social justice pedagogies must move beyond a multicultural “window and mirror” (Style, 1988) engagement with curriculum. Mobilizing the word “portal” as a vehicle that enables movement to/between (an)other space/time. Movement that is felt and experienced bodily, rather than the voyeuristic engagement with cultural competency that looking out a window allows.

6 We are grateful to an anonymous reviewer who encouraged us to unpack this relationship.

7 For further reading on understanding racialization and racial performance as “affective difference”, see Muñoz, 2000.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alissa Case

Alissa Case is a doctoral candidate in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Minnesota.

Ezekiel Joubert

Ezekiel Joubert III received his doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Minnesota and is currently a professor at Cal State LA in Educational Foundations.