A presence for decades in individuals' everyday life practices and
identity formation, the Walt Disney Company has more recently also
become an influential element within the "big" curriculum of public and
private spaces outside of yet in proximity to formal educational
institutions. Disney, Culture, and Curriculum explores the myriad ways
that Disney's curricula and pedagogies manifest in public consciousness,
cultural discourses, and the education system. Examining Disney's
historical development and contemporary manifestations, this book
critiques and deconstructs its products and perspectives while providing
insight into Disney's operations within popular culture and everyday
life in the United States and beyond.
The contributors engage with Disney's curricula and pedagogies in a
variety of ways, through critical analysis of Disney films, theme parks,
and planned communities, how Disney has been taught and resisted both in
and beyond schools, ways in which fans and consumers develop and
negotiate their identities with their engagement with Disney, and how
race, class, gender, sexuality, and consumerism are constructed through
Disney content. Incisive, comprehensive, and highly interdisciplinary,
Disney, Culture, and Curriculum extends the discussion of popular
culture as curriculum and pedagogy into new avenues by focusing on the
affective and ontological aspects of identity development as well as the
commodification of social and cultural identities, experiences, and
subjectivities.
