Contesting Concepts, Imagining New Possibilities

David Graeber, Democracy, and Social Studies Curriculum

Authors

  • Peter M Nelson University of British Columbia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v16i1.186874

Keywords:

social studies education, citizenship, civics education, democracy, David Graeber, critical education, debt

Abstract

This essay places David Graeber’s consistent focus on imagination and possibilities into conversation with social studies education. In a sociopolitical climate characterized by neoliberalism, militarized borders, and political censorship of social studies teaching and learning in P-12 schools, it is crucial that social studies teachers and teacher educators in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere continue to engage in pedagogies that are critical and responsive, providing students with representations of the past and present that, rather than reproducing the status quo, playfully imagine alternative futures that are more equitable, just, and free. Building from Graeber’s work in direct civic action, this essay offers ideas for how standardized social studies concepts can be reconfigured in affecting, life-giving ways.

Author Biography

Peter M Nelson, University of British Columbia

Dr. Peter M Nelson is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at The University of British Columbia. Broadly, Dr. Nelson’s work as a social studies teacher educator, researcher, and curriculum theorist is unified by his interest in exploring the affective and more-than-human dimensions of social studies curriculum, teaching, and learning, foci constituted by the fact that what we feel matters greatly in how we view ourselves in relation to one another and to our more-than-human world. 

Downloads

Published

2025-01-31

Issue

Section

Articles