Disruptive gratitude: Challenging relationships between fangirls and curriculum theory

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2021

Abstract

By pulling from the complex field of fan studies, I hope to show how fan studies, particularly fangirls and their practices, can inform the field of curriculum theory. In this article, through an autobiographical sharing of moments, I consider how fangirl practices have shaped the way I regard scholars, conferences, and relationships. I then introduce a notion of “disruptive gratitude” into understandings of both fandom and curriculum theorizing and discuss how that concept might be used as a way to interrupt those fan(girl) practices that silence, erase, and oppress. Then, I consider three moments of disruptive gratitude that demonstrate my fangirling and reflect on how those moments have shaped my interactions with the community (and a fandom) in scholarship, spaces, and structures. I conclude by theorizing how the notion of disruptive gratitude enacted through fangirl practices serves as a possible way to undertake the necessary work of curriculum theory in order to challenge the structures of the field that standardize education, demoralize the profession, and ignore inequities.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Curriculum Inquiry

First Page

366

Last Page

380

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