Decolonizing and De-canonizing Curriculum Studies: An Engaged Discussion Organized around João M. Paraskeva's Recent Books

Abstract

In this essay, I provide an introduction to the special section of the Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies on João M. Parakeva’s contributions to curriculum studies published in volume seventeen, issue one.  I situate Paraskeva’s work within the transnational curriculum studies field, provide a gloss of his conceptual grammar, reflect on the problematics of translation in decolonial work, and characterize the five review essays and two commentaries that comprise the special section.  In concluding, I discuss the potentials of a transnational South-North dialogue of which Parakeva’s work is emblematic in the field.

James C. Jupp is Professor and Chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.  The Author worked in rural and inner-city Title I settings for eighteen years before accepting a position working with teachers, administrators, and researchers at the university level.  A public school teacher in Texas who worked with predominantly Latin@, Mexican, Mexican American, and indigenous students, one line of his research develops transnational and cosmopolitan sensibilities in education with an emphasis on decolonizing Hispanophone curriculum orientations targeted at informing education in Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), teacher education programs, and preservice and professional teacher education.  Overall, Jupp has published more than thirty scholarly articles in a variety of journals including the Review of Educational Research, Curriculum Inquiry, Gender and Education, International Journal of Qualitative Research in Education, and Multicultural Perspectives.  His second book, Becoming Teachers of Inner-city Students, was published on Sense Publishers in 2013.