UW-Madison’s Tom Popkewitz delivered a keynote speech at the European Educational Research Association ‘s annual conference in Bolzano, Italy, earlier this month.
Popkewitz is a professor with the School of Education’s No. 1-ranked Department of Curriculum and Instruction. His research focuses on the systems of reason that govern curriculum reforms, the sciences of education and teacher education. His keynote was titled, “The Paradox of Research: The Good Intentions of Inclusion that Excludes and Abjects.”
Popkewitz explains that his lecture, delivered on Sept. 6, explored the paradox of exclusion and inclusion in educational research. He argued that European and America social and education sciences concerned with school reform and change entails double gestures. One is the liberal hope of school research to produce a future inclusive society. But with that hope are fears about the dangers and dangerous populations that threaten that desired future.