Casey, Z. A. (2011). Toward a Reconceptualization of Needs in Classrooms:
Baudrillard, Critical Pedagogy, and Schooling in the United States. The Journal for
Critical Education Policy Studies, 9(2) 77-90.
Abstract
In this paper I review Marx’s (1990) conceptions of use value and exchange
value before turning to Baudrillard’s (1981) critique of both in the capitalist
construction of needs. I then use Baudrillard’s conception of the ‘system of needs’ to
identify how this same process works in schools and classrooms. Namely, how
students become conceptualized as commodities and how schools as the sites in which
these commodities are produced become complicit with capitalist social reproduction.
Finally, I take up the pedagogical project of redefining (humanizing) needs in a
critical pedagogy that is decidedly anti-capitalist, while accounting for the various
structural mechanisms in place in our present school system within the United States
that work against such a critical pedagogy.
http://www.jceps.com/index.php?pageID=article&articleID=225
Casey, Z. A. (2011). The Fight In My Classroom: A Story of Intersectionality in Practitioner Research. i.e.: inquiry in education: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 3.
Abstract
Using the story of a fight between an African American male student and a white male student in a high school classroom, I trace not only the raced and classed actors involved, but also the story of my sense making as a practicing teacher and researcher. Drawing on the concept of intersectionality, I show how a story that seems as simple as a racist white student and a reactionary African American student is far more nuanced and complex. Finally, I discuss what this complexity means for us as researchers of our own practice, and find that intersectionality as a theoretical tool can give us as researchers and practitioners new found insights into processes of oppression as well as into our own practice. http://digitalcommons.nl.edu/ie/vol2/iss1/3/
Casey, Z. A. (2010). Remembering to be Radical in Teacher Education: Defanged Multicultural Education. The Journal of Multiculturalism in Education, 6(1), 1-19.
Abstract
This paper identifies the radical foundations of multicultural education and discusses the reasons for why multicultural education has been defanged and has lost its radical roots. Further, the author argues for teacher education to take up the true work of multicultural education in educating future teachers for critical consciousness in the hopes that we can bring about a more socially just society for all people. This is a radical pronouncement, and it is imperative that we not forget exactly what we mean when we maintain that schooling should seek to foster a multicultural curriculum. The author concludes that this work must take place in teacher education, and that we stop blaming pre-service teachers for teacher educator’s failings. http://www.multiculturaljournal.com/volumes/6/1/#casey