Structuralism’s relevance in a post-structural era: Re-visiting research on multicultural curricular studies JENNA MIN SHIM* At the current historical juncture in which differences and inequalities are surfacing greater than ever in the world, societies, and schools, the main goal of this essay is to revisit the aspects of structuralism that can potentially contribute productively to under- standing the invisible structures and forces that everyone carries (mostly unknowingly) with them at all times and in all places including in multicultural curricular and social justice work. By doing so, this essay also attempts to dispute with liberal humanistic notions of the self (teachers and students) in multicultural curricular studies that contin- ues to support the dominant framework of curriculum. This essay is grounded on the idea that progressive change is predicated on (although never guaranteed by) uncovering and understanding as fully as possible the social, political, and economic organization of the world, which is always mediated by individual selves who are located within the world in specific ways. Keywords: structuralism; post-structuralism; social structures and forces; multi- cultural curricular work. Keeping the concept of structure active in social theory helps keep social science responsible. (Connell 2004: 26) Interpersonal relations are never, except in appearance, individual-to- individual relationships and that the truth of the interaction is never entirely contained in the interaction. (Bourdieu 1977: 81) Introduction For at least a couple of decades already, multicultural education continues to remain a popular agenda not only in American schooling but schoolings in other nations. This is not surprising. From a global perspec- tive, we live in the world in which entanglement is an inherent condition of human existence because all of us are constantly criss-crossing cultural Jenna Min Shim is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Studies, Uni- versity of Wyoming, 204 McWhinnie Hall, Dept. 3374, 1000 E. University Ave., Laramie, WY 82071, USA; e-mail: jshim@uwyo.edu. Her primary research interests centre on cur- riculum theory and cross-cultural pedagogies with the specific goal of contributing to social change in favour of historically marginalized groups. J. CURRICULUM STUDIES, 2011, VOL. 43, NO. 6, 739–758 Journal of Curriculum Studies ISSN 0022-0272 print/ISSN 1366-5839 online Ó 2011 Taylor & Francis http://www.tandfonline.com http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2011.591435