Developing Curricular Standpoint

This chapter constructs a framework for what the author refers to as “curricular standpoint.” The author argues that this framework for curriculum can operate as a political and epistemological intervention against status-quo, hegemonic school knowledge that, in our current system, functions to maintain and reproduce unequal social relations. This chapter starts by outlining standpoint theory as originally conceived by Lukacs and further developed by leading critical, feminist scholars Harding and Hartsock. The chapter then reviews how standpoint in various forms has been formally used (and mis-used) within educational research, and then concludes by developing a framework for curricular standpoint as a methodological tool for both curriculum inquiry and curricular practice. Ultimately, the goal of this chapter is to sharpen our understanding of the struggle over the politics of knowledge in the curriculum.