American Educational Research Association SIG on Critical Issues in Curriculum and Cultural Studies

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is the premier professional association for academics in the field of education in the United States. Within this organization a structure exists that enables a variety of ways to engage in the association. For example, special interest groups (SIGs) in AERA are spaces for unique and specific windows into contemporary scholarship and move within the larger fields of education addressed by the major divisions in the organization. It takes a group of dedicated AERA members to develop a proposal and circulate a petition among like-minded members to gain permission to create a SIG. The Critical Issues in Curriculum and Cultural Studies SIG is one such historic window of contemporary scholarship. It was developed to provide a more flexible space within the larger organization for reconceptualist curriculum scholars to share and discuss their work that addressed theoretical issues and research studies framed by a critical approach centered on questions of power and exclusivity in curriculum. This was a historic move within and against the more traditional notions of curriculum that, at that time, framed the larger structure of Division B (Curriculum). The SIG provides a welcome place for graduate students and established scholars to network and to learn from each other regarding the latest fringe efforts of the field of curriculum.

Originally, the SIG was titled Critical Issues in Curriculum Studies. However, it evolved over time to include scholars and research in the area of cultural studies in education. Thus, the SIG developed into the current group with the addition of “Cultural Studies” to the title. According to the AERA Web site for the SIG, this group supports transdisciplinary research in education focused on experience and understanding. It works to destabilize traditional boundaries in the field of curriculum. Specific areas of interest in the group include research and theory ranging from critical theory and autobiographical inquiry to postmodern theories and performative autoethno-graphic inquiry.