A troubling inheritance: Experimenting with problematic curricula

Abstract After generations of codifying curriculum, the Reconceptualization turned away from codified curriculum to better understand curriculum. Just as before the Reconceptualization, problematic curricula continue to proliferate creating a troubling inheritance. This paper turns to one such troubling inheritance, the problematic curriculum of Hirsch et al. (2002). Recognizing the field’s limited influence in large-scale curriculum development, this paper considers what it might mean to “accept (some) educational responsibility” for a troubling inheritance. Drawing on the concept of the anarchive, both that which is left out of archives and the surplus value of archives, this paper develops an approach to anarchival assemblage art with problematic curricula. While the field’s relationship with schools provides a source of simmering conflict within the field, this paper argues for an experimental approach to the troubling inheritance of problematic curricula, reactivating it in new events to find out what else it might do.