[Bilimsel Haber] CFP: Visual Studies: The Hidden Curriculum

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

From: Jerry Krase <JerryKrase at aol.com>

Visual Studies Special Issue 22(1)
The Visable Curriculum

Seeing is a key feature of schooling: What is visible? What is noticed?
Almost all public and political attention that is paid to schools, and
proposals for educational reform, conceive of the main function of
school, education, as training the mind. Current accountability
movements, for example, emphasize performance on standardized
examinations in content areas like mathematics and linguistic ability.

However, education has always been about training the body as much or
more than training the mind. As elements of what is sometimes termed the
hidden curriculum children are expected to learn to sit still for long
periods of time, to control their bodily functions, wear certain styles
of clothes, practice prescribed hygiene, play well with others, adopt
the postures and practices of obedience to authority and so on.

The architecture of sites of education, including schools and school
rooms, the design and alignment of desks or other furniture, and the
technology of teaching are designed for surveillance and constitute what
Foucault termed "pedagogical machines." Carefully arranged and posed
class pictures suggest the performance of social order. The ubiquitous
association of schools with sports, teams, marching bands, school plays
and so on testify to the importance of bodily performances and
ceremonies that similarly train the body in what Paul Connerton, in his
book _How Societies Remember_ called "micro gymnastics of power."
Ceremonies like taking the role, morning prayers, rajio taiso or
saluting the flag are intended to produce habit memory that does not
require thought. Schools are also the site of important coming of age
ceremonies.

Material bodies in school also include teachers, administrators,
parents, teachers aides, lunchroom staff, security guards and so on.
How does the hidden curriculum of schooling function for these adults?

This special issue invites visual sociologists and non-sociologists,
including visual and educational researchers, design researchers,
architects and anthropologists, to examine the Visible Curriculum. What
can we learn about education by examining the arrangement of student and
teacher bodies within the spaces of the built environment of the school,
by examining the visible traces of school life in such things as art
work, drawings, graffiti and dress? How are visible traits like race,
gender and the social class of students and teachers useful in
understanding? Studies of space and place, of performance and ceremony,
of the visual and material culture of schools and education, of the
archives of school photography, and photography or art projects
undertaken by schoolchildren are especially welcome. This is a rich
ground for visual sociologists and others, opening up possibilities to
examine the ways in which schooling is enacted, as well as the more
visible elements of school status. We will consider studies from
preschool through university and non-formal education.

The editor is particularly interested in international contributions,
including contributions from non-western cultures.

Deadline for submissions 30th June 2006

Please send inquiries, proposals and completed papers to:
Eric Margolis, Division of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies,
Arizona State University, Tempe AZ 85287-2411, USA. Tel: (480) 965 0131.
Fax: (480) 965 1880. Email: margolis at asu.edu

For more information on Visual Studies, instructions for authors and to
request a sample copy please visit:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/routledge/1472586X.html

Jerry Krase
<JerryKrase at aol.com>