Oral Presentation Session

Reviewed by: Council on Anthropology and Education

Of interest to: Students, Those Involved in Mentoring Activities

Primary Theme: Ethics

Secondary Theme: Identity and Equity

(5-0210) Taboo Topics in Education: Resistance to Hegemonic Ideologies within Academic Research

From the issue of anti-blackness within bilingual education to the question of ethics within STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education, there are topics within the field of education research that are often not discussed or overlooked due to the discomfort caused by their taboo nature. However, leaving these topics unexamined does not mean that they are not worthy of investigation or discussion. In fact, leaving topics unexplored can contribute to their erasure in the field, leaving in place hegemonic ideologies about what is substantive and appealing to merit examination.

As anthropologists of education , our work has led us to reflexive examinations of our research practice as well as the larger fields and contexts in which we operate (Foley, 2004; Kleinsasser, 2000). In this symposium turn the lens inward, engaging in a critical examination of critical questions in the field of educational anthropology that have remained taboo, or potentially “unsafe” to unearth or discuss openly. Following Villenas (1996), we move to examine our own possible engagement in theories, methods, and ideologies that signal complicity with the position of “researcher-as-colonizer”, in order to move to new ideas, identities, and positions in the field of educational anthropology.

Foley, D. E. (2004). Critical ethnography: The reflexive turn. International Journal of Qualitative
Studies in Education, 15(5), 469-490.
Kleinsasser, A. M. (2000). Researchers, reflexivity, and good data: Writing to unlearn. Theory
into Practice, 39, 155-162.
Villenas, S. A. (1996). The colonizer/colonized Chicana ethnographer: Identity, marginalization,
and co-optation in the field. Harvard Educational Review, 66(4), 711-731.

Organizer(s)

• P. Zitlali Morales

  Associate Professor
  University of Illinois at Chicago

Chair(s)

• Ramon Martinez

  Assistant Professor
  Stanford University

• Jolynn Asato

  San Jose State University

Presenter(s)

• Dolores Calderon

  Western Washington University

• Arshad Ali

  Assistant Professor of Educational Research
  The George Washington University

• Suzie Abajian

  School Board Member
  South Pasadena Unified School District

• Shirin Vossoughi

  Assistant Professor
  Northwestern University

Discussant(s)

• Cindy Cruz

  Associate Professor of Education and Critical Youth Studies
  University of California, Santa Cruz

Presentations:

• 8:00 AM - 8:15 AM

  Acknowledging Ruination and Rubble in the Spaces of Educational Ethnography
  Dolores Calderon – Western Washington University
• 8:15 AM - 8:30 AM

  Resistance research functioning to erasure non-liberal discourses in educational ethnography
  Arshad Imtiaz Ali – The George Washington University
• 8:30 AM - 8:45 AM

  Grit, Discipline and the Pedagogy of Enforcement in Militarized Schooling Spaces
  Suzie M. Abajian – South Pasadena Unified School District
• 8:45 AM - 9:00 AM

  STEM Learning Towards What Ends? Resisting Militarism and Imagining Otherwise
  Shirin Vossoughi – Northwestern University
• 9:00 AM - 9:15 AM

  Discussion
  Cindy Cruz – University of California, Santa Cruz