Moral, difference and curriculum: dialogues among Nietzsche, Deleuze and the education

Abstract

This article aims at establishing a dialogue among Nietzsche, Deleuze and education. In order to do it, some relationships among the theoretical conceptions of moral of denial, developed by Nietzsche; Difference, formulated by Deleuze and the post-critical approach to curriculum studies are established and problematized. The objective pursued in this work was to problematize resonances of Judeo-Christian moral in the education-Difference relationship and possible power effects resulting from it. Based on the theoretical contribution of a post-structuralist epistemological framework, it is argued that the moral of denial runs through school curricula. As a result, curricula adopt certain identities as essences, taking them as models in subjectivation processes. By favoring the production of identities, the curricula do not conceive the Difference in itself, without a referent. They only conceive it as a difference in relation to, as a variation of naturalized identities that privilege and try to reproduce. Based on Deleuze, it is proposed to think about curricula from the perspective of Difference. Curricula thought from these theoretical lenses do not passively adopt the moral of denial and the identity as founding and absolute truths, but they call them into question while defending an affirmative moral that creates and recreates itself allowing Difference in itself. Curricula constituted in this way do not seek to homogenize individuals, but increase their power to act and assert themselves as singularities in constant processes of construction-deconstruction-reconstruction.