Detournement as Pedagogical Praxis

215 Pages·2014·1.477 MB·English

by  James Trier (eds.)

Detournement as Pedagogical Praxis
BREAKTHROUGHS IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
Volume 3
Series Editor:
George W. Noblit, Joseph R. Neikirk Distinguished Professor of Sociology of
Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
In this series, we are establishing a new tradition in the sociology of education. Like
many fields, the sociology of education has largely assumed that the field develops
through the steady accumulation of studies. Thomas Kuhn referred to this as ‘normal
science.’ Yet normal science builds on a paradigm shift, elaborating and expanding
the paradigm. What has received less attention are the works that contribute to
paradigm shifts themselves. To remedy this, we will focus on books that move the
field in dramatic and recognizable ways—what can be called breakthroughs.
Kuhn was analyzing natural science and was been less sure his ideas fit the social
sciences. Yet it is likely that the social sciences are more subject to paradigm shifts
than the natural sciences because the social sciences are fed back into the social
world. Thus sociology and social life react to each other, and are less able separate
the knower from the known. With reactivity of culture and knowledge, the social
sciences follow a more complex process than that of natural science. This is clearly
the case with the sociology of education. The multiplicity of theories and methods
mix with issues of normativity—in terms of what constitutes good research, policy
and/or practice. Moreover, the sociology of education is increasingly global in its
reach—meaning that the national interests are now less defining of the field and more
interrogative of what is important to know. This makes the sociology of education
even more complex and multiple in its paradigm configurations. The result is both
that there is less shared agreement on the social facts of education but more vibrancy
as a field. What we know and understand is shifting on multiple fronts constantly.
Breakthroughs is to the series for works that push the boundaries—a place where all
the books do more than contribute to the field, they remake the field in fundamental
ways. Books are selected precisely because they change how we understand both
education and the sociology of education.
Detournement as Pedagogical Praxis
Edited by
James Trier
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-94-6209-798-8 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-94-6209-799-5 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-94-6209-800-8 (e-book)
Published by: Sense Publishers,
P.O. Box 21858,
3001 AW Rotterdam,
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
1. The Introduction to Detournement as Pedagogical Praxis 1
James Trier
2. A Detournement of Joe Clark’s Problematic “Motto” of
Personal Agency in Lean on Me 39
James Trier
3. Juan Skippy: A Critical Detournement of Skippyjon Jones 55
Amy Senta
4. The Hollywood Indian Goes to School: Detournement as Praxis 79
Trey Adcock
5. Detournement as Anti-Oppressive Pedagogy and Invitation to Crisis:
Queering Gender in a Preservice Teacher Education Classroom 107
Ashley Boyd
6. In God’s Country: Deploying Detournement to Expose the Enmeshment
of Christianity within the Spectacle of Capitalism 129
Tim Conder
7. Challenging Waiting for Superman through Detournement 155
James Trier
8. Detourning the Charterization of New Orleans Public Schools with
Preservice Teachers 171
Joseph D. Hooper
9. Revisiting “Sordid Fantasies”: Using Detournement as an Approach to
Qualitative Inquiry 195
Jason Mendez
v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
F irst and foremost, I want to thank George Noblit for suggesting the idea of this
book, for providing invaluable advice and patient encouragement along the way,
and for giving me the opportunity to edit and publish the book in his B reakthroughs
in the Sociology of Education series. George is a natural detournement artist, and
I consider the published version of his presidential address at the 2000 American
Educational Studies Association (published in E ducational Studies) to be his own
account of a detournement that operated at several levels.
O f course, I also want to express my great appreciation to Trey Adcock, Amy
Senta, Jason Mendez, Ashley Boyd, Tim Conder. and Joseph Hooper for the
carefully crafted and thoughtful chapters that they contributed to this book. Each
one’s approach to detournement is unique, engaging, provocative, and pedagogically
powerful, and I think their chapters and mine come together well to form a collective
(provisional) reply to the question, “What is detournement?” I look forward to
reading their future published work about creating detournements in their current
academic contexts. I am sure each will take detournement in new directions.
vii

JAMES TRIER
1. THE INTRODUCTION TO DETOURNEMENT AS
PEDAGOGICAL PRAXIS
In the broadest sense, Debord’s whole conception of society is founded on
detournement .
— Anselm Jappe, 1999
W hile preparing to write this introduction to D etournement as Pedagogical Praxis ,
I read a great deal about the Paris-based avant-garde group called the Situationist
International (SI) because the theory and critical practice of detournement is most
often associated in academic writing with the SI. I eventually realized that what I
was writing based on the research I was doing about the SI was actually material that
went far beyond the purposes of this book, and so I conceptualized another book that
will follow this one, a book provisionally titled S ituationist Theory and Education . In
that book, I will discuss the Situationist International’s origins, main figures, creative
works, writings, history, and post-demise afterlife in academic scholarship and
popular culture. Doing that will entail discussing dada, surrealism, the Lettrists, the
Lettrist International, psychogeography, the dérive, unitary urbanism, detournement,
architecture, painting, cinema, “scandals,” the Spectacle, May’68, and more. I will
also explain how the concepts and critical artistic practices of the Situationists have
shaped my thinking, teaching, research, and scholarship as an academic in the field
of Education. “Detournement” will figure importantly in that book, too, but it won’t
be the central focus like it is in this book. But enough about “that book.” What is
this book about?
Obviously, it is about detournement. Not so immediately obvious is what
“detournement” means.1 For now I want to provide the most frequently cited—
and partial—definition of detournement given by Guy Debord, the leader of the
Situationist International. Debord (1959) stated generally that detournement entails
“the reuse of preexisting artistic elements in a new ensemble” (p. 55). Though
Debord used the word “artistic” in this general definition, three years earlier he and
his friend, Gil Wolman, had defined detournement without such a qualifier, stating,
“Any elements, no matter where they are taken from, can be used to make new
combinations” (Debord & Wolman, 1956, p. 9). These two definitional statements
about detournement—partial and general as they are—enable me to state that each
of the authors in this book has written a chapter about how he or she incorporated
J. Trier (Ed.), Detournement as Pedagogical Praxis, 1–37.
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