[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-155063-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-155063-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","monkeywrenching-the-curriculum-curricular-subversion-as-an-act-of-care","Monkeywrenching the Curriculum: Curricular Subversion as an Act of Care","","In an education system shaped by high-stakes testing, accountability pressures, homogenized scripts, and narrowed standards, achieving curricular relevance for specific learners and classrooms becomes increasingly difficult. This conceptual analysis argues that monkeywrenching—direct curricular subversion adapted to particular students—can operate as an act of care, drawing on Nel Noddings’ framework. Sustainability education provides a concrete lens showing how such interventions can demonstrate care for place and for students.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/monkeywrenching-the-curriculum-curricular-subversion-as-an-act-of-care/155063/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/monkeywrenching-the-curriculum-curricular-subversion-as-an-act-of-care/155063.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Maeve","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-31","2026-08-28",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",7,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What challenge does the paper identify in contemporary education?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It identifies the growing difficulty for educators to create curricular relevance for specific students and classrooms under high-stakes testing, accountability demands, scripted pedagogy, and narrowed academic standards.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does the paper define monkeywrenching in a curricular context?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Monkeywrenching is direct action subversion applied to curricula for the sake of specific students, framed as an act of care.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Why does sustainability education matter in the argument?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The paper uses sustainability education to illustrate how curricular subversion through monkeywrenching can powerfully demonstrate care for place and for students.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},155063,1787904720,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":80,"read_time":112,"preview_page_count":4},5909877438554,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/5600025385ad2bf12a7?_k=1778553567797529272","| | Monkeywrenching the Curriculum: Curricular Subversion as anAct of Care |\n| --- | --- |\n|  |  |\n\nMatthew Clay, Fort Hayes State University Paul Parkison, University of North Florida  \nAbstract  \nIn the era of education dominated by high stakes testing and accountability, homogenized and scripted pedagogy, and narrowed academic standards, achieving curricular relevance for particular students and classrooms is increasingly difficult for educators. This conceptual analysis suggests that the practice of monkeywrenching, borrowed from environmental activism, can serve as an action by teachers to address this challenge. Monkeywrenching consists of direct action subversion, applied to curricula for the sake of specific students, and is constituted as an act of care as described by Nel Noddings. Specific consideration of sustainability education indicates that curriculum subversion through monkeywrenching can be a powerful tool in demonstrating care for place and students.  \nKeywords: action, agency, environmental curriculum, sustainability curriculum, curriculum implementation, curriculum theory, place-based education  \nThere comes a time in a man's life when he has to pull up stakes. Has to light out. Has to stop straddling, and start cutting, fence (Abbey, 2006 p. 99) .  \nEdward Abbey offered this phrase in his iconic work The Monkey Wrench Gang. The Monkey Wrench Gang has served as inspiration for many environmental activist groups for nearly half a century (Irvine, 2018) . Although influential for organizations such as the Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front (Joosse, 2014), the concept of monkeywrenching has not been utilized as an educational or a curricular lens. Thinking about the times within an educator’s classroom experience when it is time for them to pull up stakes from high stakes testing and accountability, homogenized and scripted pedagogy, and narrowed academic standards has been explored by critical educational scholars from multiple perspectives. The challenge for contemporary teachers involves when and how to light out and stop straddling and start cutting curricular fences.  \nWithin the institutions of education, we currently find society placing demands on teachers and students that are out of alignment with traditional expectations. The cultural scripts that have traditionally been available to educators are being replaced by more “efficient” and automated scripts. These scripts are the mechanisms used to sustain hegemonic conditions and contexts. The professional ideals within this institutional framing are fidelity of implementation and instructional  \nalignment. Issues within schooling like effective teacher rubrics, high impact/leverage practices, and the accountability mechanisms of standardized testing illustrate the framing and foreclosing of potential that educators face. This institutional framing disrupts the project of justice and liberation. Also, as Santiago Rincon-Gallardo (2019) argues, the demands of standardized testing and employability limit how learning is valued for its own sake. He states,“Learning is rarely seen asan intrinsic value, a liberating act, a deliberate practice with larger societal implications”(p. 4) . Liberating learning from the acquiescence of historic political-economic expectations and hegemonic standards and outcomes will require the recognition of the impact of systems of oppression tied to neoliberalism, white supremacy, and colonialism. As a society, we have failed to consider the relationships involved injustice and liberation as a concern central to the purpose, process, and mission of schooling. Educators need to recognize when, how, and why it is time to pull up stakesand start cutting fences.  \nIn his text Scripted Bodies: Corporate Power, Smart Technologies, and the Undoing of Public Education (2017), Kenneth Saltman provides an insightful analysis of the ringfencing of education that has occurred. The need for a strategy like monkeywrenching to coun","cbCaimJFxgQl1lHJ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimJFxgQl1lHJ","pdf",231465,12,"English","# Abstract\n# Curricular Relevance Under High-Stakes Testing\n## Accountability, scripts, and institutional framing\n# Monkeywrenching as an Educational Lens\n## Environmental activism and educational underuse\n# Pulling Up Stakes: Cutting Curricular Fences\n## Systems of oppression and the purpose of schooling\n# Theoretical Grounding\n## Repressive pedagogy and scripted education\n## Obstacles for critical curriculum theory\n# Themes of Monkeywrenching","[{\"question\":\"What challenge does the paper identify in contemporary education?\",\"answer\":\"It identifies the growing difficulty for educators to create curricular relevance for specific students and classrooms under high-stakes testing, accountability demands, scripted pedagogy, and narrowed academic standards.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper define monkeywrenching in a curricular context?\",\"answer\":\"Monkeywrenching is direct action subversion applied to curricula for the sake of specific students, framed as an act of care.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does sustainability education matter in the argument?\",\"answer\":\"The paper uses sustainability education to illustrate how curricular subversion through monkeywrenching can powerfully demonstrate care for place and for students.\"}]","Monkeywrenching the Curriculum: Curricular Subversion as an Act of Care | PDF"]