Bringing Memory Forward (Complicated Conversation: a Book Series of Curriculum Studies)

Bringing Memory Forward looks at the application of the method of currere to storied formation. Research tells us that white teachers are among the most recalcitrant of learners when it comes to challenging their own memories and experiences of privilege and race. This book examines how white teachers can recognize and critique their constructions of «difference», and asks what it is that white teachers are so attached to that makes such critique difficult. The book goes on to discuss the processes that might be set in motion to bring these attachments into question in such a way that the learner (namely, the teacher) does not feel alienated and paralyzed by her «thoughtlessness» but instead is moved to think and act. Through elaborating a method called «bringing memory forward» that emerged from self-study methodologies and a teacher action research project, Teresa Strong-Wilson draws attention to the significance of stories, and critical engagement with stories, in social justice education with teachers.