Reconceptualizing curriculum in internationalization : conceiving futurity

This dissertation proposes that the central problem for curriculum studies internationally is the imperative of development—understood not merely as a modern ideal, but as a historical process grounded in the pursuit of order, security, and wellbeing. I trace development to early human settlements that sought surplus through technology, enabling the rise of mass societies and hierarchical power relations. With the liberal revolution and the advent of capitalism, development came to mean freedom through economic wellbeing, positioning Homo economicus as the ideal subject of futurism—a logic now institutionalized through the school curriculum. To investigate how this imperative manifests in national contexts, I analyze educational policy and curriculum texts in Brazil, juxtaposed with select Canadian curriculum documents. I ask whether the Brazilian framework promotes a future-oriented, economic logic of development, and how curriculum might instead become a site of ethical and relational transformation. My analysis concludes that Brazilian curriculum is primarily driven by developmental futurisms. In response, drawing on the method of currere, I situate autobiographical inquiry as a tool for examining psyche and power across time and space, using life history to reconceptualize curriculum. With currere, I propose an alternative future grounded in ethical responsibility and care, reimagining curriculum through the logic of the gift rather than the logic of accumulation akin to “gold rushes.” I sketch possibilities for new curricular designs in the areas of sex and financial education, where caregiving and relationality might replace competition and control. Ultimately, this thesis contributes to the reconceptualization of curriculum as a site for ethical, relational becoming.