Learning from Roger Simon: The work of Pedagogy in the Social Studies Curriculum

Abstract

This paper conducts an affirmative reading of key constructs of pedagogy, ethics, culture and justice put forth in the texts of Roger Simon. Rereading these texts with, against and across the trajectory of one thinker's thought, the article generates new possibilities for pedagogy in global and contemporary times. The paper demonstrates that reading affirmatively is a generative form of critical thinking that considers, deliberates and renews thought as an active ongoing and dialogical process of meaning making. This way of reading, as closely inhabiting the lines of the other's thought, seeks to do justice to the lifework of this remarkable thinker and contributes a view of reading the other's words as a vital to thinking, learning, teaching and acting in the world.