The regenerative power of curriculum theorising: feminine wonderings/wanderings (without)

• Published in: Curriculum perspectives 2024-04
• Main Authors: Du Preez, Petro, Le Grange, Lesley
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0159-7868; 2367-1793
• DOI: 10.1007/s41297-024-00252-z

Ubuntu-currere, resonates with Catherine Malabou’s concept of plasticity (inspired by the figuration of the salamander) in the sense that they are both regenerative processes although the former might be viewed as a macro-process and the latter a micro-process. Ubuntu-currere concerns the (ongoing) unfolding/becoming of the human in intra-action with other humans and more-than-human world - a re/generative process of mind-body-soul. In this article, author 1 narrates her story of becoming-woman through weaving together her engagement with the work of Catherine Malabou, including the notion of plasticity, and Le Grange’s ubuntu-currere. After the autobiophilosography of author 1, we draw on the concept curriculum as complicated conversation whereby author 2 engages in a diffractive reading of author 1’s autobiophilosography, through conceptually experimenting with Malabou’s references to wondering (French: admiration) and Barad’s notion of wondering/wandering (imagination). Curriculum as complicated conversation concerns processes in which curriculum scholars engage in open and frank intra-actions, by listening to others for the purpose of self-criticism. We propose that wandering/wondering could add yet another dimension to the notion of complicated conversation and contribute to thinking of alternative possibilities for the field and for the becoming of pedagogical lives.