Childhood, Science Fiction, and Pedagogy

This book invites readers to both reassess and reconceptualize definitions of childhood and pedagogy by imagining the possibilities - past, present, and future - provided by the aesthetic turn to science fiction. It explores constructions of children, childhood, and pedagogy through the multiple lenses of science fiction as a method of inquiry, and discusses what counts as science fiction and why science fiction counts.

 

The book examines the notion of relationships in a variety of genres and stories; probes affect in the convergence of childhood and science fiction; and focuses on questions of pedagogy and the ways that science fiction can reflect the status quo of schooling theory, practice, and policy as well as offer alternative educative possibilities. Additionally, the volume explores connections between children and childhood studies, pedagogy and posthumanism. The various contributors use science fiction as the frame of reference through which conceptual links between inquiry and narrative, grounded in theories of media studies, can be developed.

David W. Kupferman is an Assistant Professor of Social Foundations of Education at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He is interested in employing trans-disciplinary methods that engage with socio-cultural constructions of pedagogy and why they matter. Recent writings have put forward poststructural and pop cultural critiques of neoliberal education reforms and the ways in which contemporary educational discourse and policy legitimize or delegitimize particular schooling subjectivities. His first book, Disassembling and Decolonizing School in the Pacific: A Genealogy from Micronesia, is available from Springer as part of their Contemporary Philosophies and Theories in Education Series (Vol. 5), and was nominated for a Critics Choice Award by the American Educational Studies Association in 2013. He has published articles in Postmodern Culture, Journal for Cultural Research, Global Studies of Childhood, and Postcolonial Directions in Education, among other journals. He is the Immediate Past Chair of the Foucault and Contemporary Theory in Education Special Interest Group at AERA, and is an Associate Editor of Policy Futures in Education.
Andrew Gibbons is an early childhood teacher, teacher educator, and associate professor at the School of Education, Auckland University of Technology. His research focuses on the construction and experience of the early childhood teaching profession drawing upon the philosophy of early childhood education and the philosophy of technology. His book The Matrix Ate My Baby (Sense) critiques the role of new media in early childhood education. In Education, Ethics and Existence: Camus and the Human Condition (Routledge, co-authored with Peter Roberts and Richard Heraud), he explores the contribution of Albert Camus for the critique of schooling. Andrew is Editor in Chief of ELearning and Digital Media, Executive Editor of the Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory and Associate Editor of Educational Philosophy and Theory.

“This insightful and creative book makes a strong, original contribution to the field(s) in that it presents quite ‘outside of the box’ content and theoretical perspectives in original, creative fashion(s) which make them highly accessible. These intellectual perspectives will enthuse readers of the content to push beyond the boundaries of the normative theoretical and practical perspectives as they intellectualize their own personal perspectives and those of others and their respective fields (e.g., childhood studies; early childhood education) of study and professional interest(s)” (Richard T. Johnson, Professor, University of Hawaii)

“This book by David W. Kupferman and Andrew Gibbons begins from the premise that the machine creates childhood. It uses science fiction as the method of inquiry to explore the social imaginary of childhood to explore posthumanist ethics and new subjectivities of children. Inspired by Kant’s Aesthetics as a first philosophy the authors explore the literary works of Le Guin, Asimov and Bradbury, and movies like Ridley Scott’s Alien to rethink and reconceptualise childhood. The book is worthy on all kinds of levels for the way it explores popular culture and the connections it draws between science, identity, and childhood studies. Highly recommended.” (Michael A. Peters, Distinguished Professor, Beijing Normal University)