The aim of this paper is to place Derrida's and Foucault's ideas on friendship in conversation and then discuss how those ideas provide a pedagogical space in which critical educators in conflict-troubled societies can promote new modes of being and living with others. In particular, the notion of critical pedagogies of friendship is…

Until recently the dominant critique of "student participation" projects was one based on the theoretical assumptions of critical theory in the form of critical pedagogy. Over the last decade, we have witnessed the emergence of a critical education discourse that theorises and critically analyses such projects using Foucault's…

This paper applies a Butlerian-inspired "queer(y)ing" methodology to disrupt the utility of agency being framed within the binary of escape and coercion. In particular, it uses Butler's concept of performative resignification to analyse how Simon, a 16-year-old white male student, maneouvres his way through the social conventions of…

This article explores the potential of queering as a mode of critique by problematising the ways in which liberal politics of race shape normative understandings of health in a high school classroom. Drawing on findings from an Australian and New Zealand (NZ) research project designed to respond to religious and cultural difference in school-based…

Drawing on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and illustrating with examples from the English system, the paper addresses the hidden racist dimension to contemporary education reforms and argues that this is a predictable and recurrent theme at times of economic crisis. Derrick Bell's concept of "interest-convergence" argues that moments of…

This article examines how a progressive, rural/small city community in the USA wrestles with race, racism, and school equity in the public arena of print media. It inquires into the tensions, limitations, and possibilities for race-conscious discourse in the face of both explicit racist hate speech and benevolent liberal race talk. Based on…

This article explores teachers' use of discourses of authenticity in relation to minoritised students, with a focus on the relationship between these discourses and "model minority" status. The paper aims to advance the critical thinking about "model minorities" in the education system in England by examining the diversity…

Because the dynamics of race are wrongly ignored in a current shroud of post-racialism (i.e. re-election of Barack Obama as president of the USA, shifting racial demographics in the USA, etc.), there are still communities in the USA and throughout the world that experience the damaging effects of racism entangled with the realities of class. Many…

This article is an engagement of methodology as an ideologico-racial practice through Critical Race Theory's practice of storytelling. It is a conceptual extension of this practice as explained through Charles Mills' use of the "racial contract (RC) as methodology" in order to explain the Herrenvolk Education--one standard for…

Employing a critical race analysis of contemporary suburban schooling in the US, the author challenges the ideology of colorblind racial contexts. The concepts of colorblindness, interest-convergence, racial realism, and white privilege are used to explain how federal mandates and common school policies and practices, such as tracking, traditional…

There is nothing natural about space as it is understood here. Spacing is an act that constructs relationships, intervals, separations and thus boundaries. The earth has no territories other than those imagined and enforced through acts of territorialisation. A city has its private spaces closed to open access and open spaces that are inscribed…

While increasing attention is being paid to the ideological debate on Confucian-influenced cultural values communicated in Chinese language textbooks, EFL textbooks remain under-examined since the TEFL/TESOL is typically assumed to be "technical" and "neutral". Drawing on critical theoretical perspectives on curriculum, education and applied…

Neoliberal policies, in spite of their considerable damage to economic equality, the environment, and education, remain dominant. In this paper, we suggest that neoliberalism has remained dominant in part because the power elite who benefit from the policies have gained control over both public debate and policy-making. By dominating the discourse…

This paper analyzes the case of Porto Alegre, Brazil as a counter-hegemonic global city. Porto Alegre is a city with no particular relevance to neoliberal globalization that, nevertheless, was launched to a global scale by transformations in local governance. New mechanisms of deliberative democracy captured the attention of social actors…

Drawing upon our experience as university faculty in teaching novice educators, we explore the issue of resistance from students around learning that entails critical reflection. By novice educators, we refer to pre-service teacher candidates and graduate students in Education faculties, particularly graduate students in adult education/lifelong…