TV as Curriculum Studies

Jordan Corson is a professor of education and an affiliated faculty member of holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University. His publications include Reconceptualizing Education for Newcomer Youth (Teachers College Press, 2023).

Dani Friedrich is an associate professor of Curriculum at Teachers College, Columbia University. He has published widely at the intersections of curriculum studies, teacher education, and comparative and international education, and for the past decade has focused on pop culture as curriculum.

Notes on Contributors
Introduction

1 1979 – Reconceptualizing Curriculum as Much More Than a Technical Field: “Grange Hill” and William Pinar

2 1980 – Diff’rent Social Classes, Diff’rent Curriculum: “Diff’rent Strokes” and Jean Anyon

3 1981 – The Kids Aren’t Alright (with Dominant Ideology): “The Facts of Life” and Michael Apple

4 1982 – “We Are a Powerful Bunch of Kids, You Know?”: “Fame” and Maxine Greene

5 1983 – Where Does Radical Pedagogy Come From?: “Teachers Only” and Henry Giroux

6 1984 – Beware the Divorced Mother!: “Kate & Allie” and Sue Middleton

7 1985 – Lessons on Hard Work and Black Identity: “The Cosby Show” and Geneva Gay

8 1986 – In Today’s Story … We Will Sell You More Toys: Saturday Morning Cartoons and David Flinders, Nel Noddings, & Stephen Thornton

9 1987 – The Multicultural Rainbow in the Gritty Schoolyard: “21 Jump Street” and Christine Sleeter & Carl Grant

10 1988 – “Sex, In the Hands of Public Educators, Was Not a Pretty Thing”: “The Wonder Years” and Michelle Fine

11 1989 – Cheating Ourselves from Feeling Empowered: “Homeroom” and Elizabeth Ellsworth

12 1990 – Family Matters (as Long as It Follows Eurocentric, Patriarchal Norms): “Family Matters” and Cameron McCarthy

13 1991 – Sorta Like That Spike Lee’s Movie: “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and Molefi Kete Asante

14 1992 – Learner-Centered Curriculum and the Private Lives of Students: “The Simpsons” and Linda Darling-Hammond & Jon Snyder

15 1993 – Embodied/Assumed/Expected Curriculum: “Boy Meets World” and Ted Aoki

16 1994 – A Curriculum of Seeing and Being Seen: “My So-Called Life” and Sonia Nieto

17 1995 – Critical Race Theory and the Power of Structural Analyses: “The Parent ‘Hood” and Gloria Ladson-Billings & William F. Tate, IV

18 1996 – Beyond Other/Us: “Heartbreak High” and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco

19 1997 – De/Tracking Ability as Popularity: “Daria” and Jeannie Oakes, Amy Stuart Wells, Makeba Jones, & Amanda Datnow

20 1998 – Foreign in Wisconsin – Racial and Ethnic Erasures as Comedy: “That 70s Show” by very special guest star Roozbeh Shirazi

21 1999 – Buffy, Queer Love, and Surviving High School: “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and Dennis Sumara & Brent Davis

22 2000 – Un/Becoming the Good Girl: “Freaks and Geeks” and Nancy Lesko

23 2000 (Part b) – “No way I’m accepting this … insult.” Red Pedagogy and an Indigenous Pedagogical Imagination: “King of the Hill” and Sandy Grande

24 2002 – Repetition and the Limits of Rational Pedagogies: “Boston Public” and Kevin Kumashiro

25 2003 – Scenes of Battling Difficult Knowledges: “Clone High” and Alicia Pitt & Deborah Britzman

26 2004 – Declassifying When Math Education Becomes Something Else Entirely: “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide” and Thomas Popkewitz

27 2005 – “School Is for Suckas”: Reflecting on “The Boondocks” and the Curriculum of Hip Hop Culture by very special guest star Denise Taliaferro Baszile

28 2006 – Juking the Stats – High-Stakes Testing, Curriculum: “The Wire”, by very special guest star Wayne Au

29 2007 – “Y’all Ready for Some Real School?”: “Class of 3000” and H. Samy Alim

30 2008 – Who Is Stuck with the Alien Card?: “Aliens in America” and Nina Asher

31 2009 – “You’re a Lima Loser and You Always Will Be!” – Curriculum of Placelessness in William McKinley High School’s Glee Club: “Glee” by very special guest star Rachel Talbert

32 2010 – A Curriculum of America – Which Is Us: “America – The Story of Us” and Thea Abu El-Haj

33 2011 – Measuring Up to Normal: “South Park” and Zeus Leonardo & Alicia Broderick

34 2012 – Bully Moves – Cyberbullying and Deleuzian Affect: “Rita” and Jette Kofoed & Jessica Ringrose

35 2013 – Simulating One-Dimensional Conceptions of Disability: “Switched at Birth” and Subini Ancy Annamma, David Connor, & Beth Ferri

36 2014 – Unanswered Readings, Anticolonial Possibilities: “Parenthood” and Leigh Patel

37 2015 – How to Get Away from the Prison of the Teacher Self: “How to Get Away with Murder” by very special guest star Esther Ohito

38 2016 – Affective School Leadership: “Vice Principals” and Alyssa Niccolini

39 2017 – Queering the Script: “American Vandal” and Harper Keenan

” 40 2018 – The Hybrid Adventures of Sabrina and Strom: “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” by very special guest star Kathryn Strom

41 2019 – “Everyone Seems Happy … and Queer!” – Sex Education and Queer(ed) Curricula of Consent: “Sex Education” with very special guest star Boni Wozolek

Epilogue – 2020 and Beyond: Janet Miller, “Abbott Elementary”, and Us

Index

Students in education programs (graduate and undergraduate) that are beginning to study curriculum theories. Also for students of television history. Subject areas: Curriculum studies, education and philosophy, and pop culture.