TE 818: Cycle One
Cycle One: What is curriculum?
Ask 10 educators what curriculum is and it’s likely you will get 10 varied answers. Ask me the same question on ten different days and I’ll likely give a slightly varied answer each time myself. Curriculum is complex, convoluted, and sometimes a conundrum to me personally. On the surface, I believe curriculum to be the basic set of information (objectives, goals, standards, etc.) that you teach in a class, course, or learning situation. Thought of holistically, curriculum takes on a much broader scope. Or is it perhaps boundless? I believe that “curriculum” can stretch across the lifespan. Curriculum becomes the sum total of everything we learn and how we relate that knowledge to our beliefs and values ultimately encompassing everything in our lives. Alfred North Whitehead wrote, “There is only one subject-matter for education, and that is Life in all its manifestations.”
I wrestle with curriculum in my personal and professional life. On one hand, I do believe that our life experiences are a curriculum unto themselves, on the other hand, as an educator I thought I would mostly be dealing with specific curriculum. For me, with my certification, I expected to enact grade level expectations for the four core subject areas or specific standards relating to a discrete middle school science class, say an Earth Science or Biology 1 class. However, this hasn’t been the tidy, nicely packaged case. Professionally, I now work in higher education, specifically with Chinese International students. I teach sections of field instruction courses and oversee intern teachers. The curriculum I enact is far removed from a discrete list of standards and objectives. In some cases, my interns are teachers of record in their placement and not only do I need to support their teaching and growth in the classroom but I also help them navigate the cultural differences between the United States and China. As a result, my view of the purpose of curriculum continues to become more complex as I continually work to discern and refine the aims of the education and goals or objectives that I strive to have my students gain as received curriculum.
Personally, I agree with Dewey and with many of the readings/scholars that curriculum should not be a set-in-stone/one size fits everyone model. I believe that the purpose of curriculum is essentially the teacher’s “game plan” for helping every student increase their personal growth and knowledge of the subject you are teaching. The relationship between the student and curriculum should be dynamic and never stagnant. I’ve never seen anything touted as “one size fits all”, or “suitable for everyone” live up to the claim and I don’t think education does either. I wrestle with tracking, standardized tests, standardized assessments, etc. just like many educators. I also struggle with how to address issues of fairness and equity in the classroom. Like Dewey, I think students learn best when personally engaged, motivated by interest in the subject matter, and when convinced of the need or relevance of the topic. Theoretically this seems to be an ideal. However, balancing theory and enacting theory into practice is the tightrope that teachers must face in their classrooms on a daily basis. Differentiating instruction throughout your curriculum to the level, interest, and engagement of every student is a daunting task and as I work in teacher preparation, one that I spend a great deal of time pondering.
As a parent of five children, all school-age, curriculum again takes on different meaning and stakes. I can say with certainty that none of my five children are the same and none of them learn or need exactly the same thing. Equity is not necessarily equal and nature vs. nurture are lived experiences in my house and honestly with three teenagers, lived more often than I would like to sometimes. The aims of education are of primary importance to me on a personal level and I am more concerned about who my children will become as grown-ups than any specific information they learn. My children attend International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes. https://www.ibo.org/globalassets/what-is-an-ib-education-2017-en.pdf. It took me a long time, and many lectures from the IB coordinators, to be able to distinguish the IB framework from the grade level curriculum taught in the classrooms. The kids are taught the same standards and subject matter curriculum at grade level as all other Michigan schools but the subject areas must be taught in a transdisciplinary fashion. All students must learn a Language B (Chinese in the case of my kids) and learn within the framework of the IB Learner Profile. The learner profile illuminates and describes the attributes each student must cultivate to reach the IB aim of developing internationally minded people. The educational aims are spelled out, clearly communicated, and worked towards in a systematic way. I love how the program plays to the individual strengths and interests of students while still including rigorous content standards. My children encompass a wide range of academic abilities and personalities. As a parent I’m grateful for the flexibility of a program that embraces multiple versions of success and includes multiple forms of assessment outside of standardized testing. My youngest daughter has significant learning disabilities is successful through the transdisciplinary and character-building aspects of the programme, more so than if she was required to be at grade level in each specific subject area at a time.
How and what curriculum should be taught to various students is a portion of my answer that would likely vary from day to day. As well as who decides appropriate curriculum. Should I as a parent of a special need student have the authority to design my daughter’s curriculum, do the teachers decide, is it a state/federal responsibility? I wrestle with these questions but do not have a clear answer beyond shared responsibility. This is where curriculum gets convoluted and uncomfortable. I appreciate Egan’s discussion on the history of curriculum and on the Latin basis of the word meaning “running” or “a race”. As an educator, I accept that curriculum is a complex component of educational philosophy. Just as a student’s relationship with curriculum should not stagnate but should be ever-growing, I believe that as an educator, I should maintain my own dynamic relationship with curriculum by constantly interrogating my personal aims of education and how I support and help my students learn.
Hi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post! I enjoyed reading it.
However we might try to define curriculum, I know that it has something to do with an individual's on-going journey towards meaning and purpose. Like you, how I try to indicate that and describe that will change from day-to-day and person-to-person. I really like the IB Learner Profile because it gives us a convincing picture of what a flourishing human being looks like. It provides a set of aims--ones that we can provisionally meet, but must go on meeting and refining as life brings us new opportunities and challenges. It embodies something essential for me as it relates to a "good curriculum."
I like the example of field instruction. How would you ever write a syllabus for that (even though I'm occasionally asked to). We have a set of reasonable standards for what our teachers will look like as they exit our program. But what it takes to get any one person proficient across all those standards could never be standardized. As you note, there are issues of personal biography; history and culture; technical proficiency; and the like. Figuring out how all those things interact is as we pursue common goals is an interesting challenge. But it's a wonderful form of teaching. Life itself--in this case, classroom teaching--provides the subject matter. I'm there as a coach to help make it educative.
I also liked hearing about your thoughts as it relates to your daughter. Maybe I'm just too stubborn (or too Deweyan), but I could never see the responsibility for your daughter's learning as residing anywhere but with her, you, and your husband. Everyone else can suggest. The state can put into place supports and safeguards. Yes, society has a right to ask things of us, but it cannot and should not try to dictate the pathways on which we journey. As Dewey said, only by being true to the unique potential of all of its members can a society be true to itself.
At the end of the day, Dewey (and Noddings) seem to view the curriculum as a set of invitations to experiences that might be had by the learner. And experience is shaped by who we are now and who we want to become in the future. Without understanding those basic contours, it's hard for me to see how anything that we do in school could become an educative experience--and realize what the curriculum is offering us.
A great post. I look forward to reading more as we go through the course!
Kyle
Hi Sarah!
ReplyDeleteI, like Kyle, enjoyed reading your post. I thought it touched on concepts I myself believe in and also question on a daily basis as an educator. I also appreciate that your post is widening my own understanding of SE services, programs, and parents of students within those programs.
I myself am not a parent, so when reading about Donovan's mother having her own struggles with what was best for him, I couldn't specifically relate. I didn't even have an answer to her questions. As a parent, you should be able to have an opinion about what your child is learning. In my own classroom, especially with my students with disabilities, I am constantly working towards providing appropriate learning opportunities for all of my students with efficient supports in place. It is important for classrooms to have supports in place for students with disabilities to be successful, but also supports to allow me, as the teacher, to help them be successful.
I ask myself this all the time, because as a human being and an educator, all I want to do is help children reach their full potential. My knowledge and life experiences are not enough at times. Therefore, I don't even have a lot of knowledge about or experience with some of the disabilities my students have to help me know whether or not I'm doing everything I can to support them. Having extra support from colleagues, materials, books, or even spaces (I.e. a sensory room), etc. really helps support my role for that student. The extra support also helps me to understand who that student is as a learner regardless of their disability. However, being at the school I'm at and having a special needs student without the proper support, I struggle a lot with those same questions Donovan's mom asked. My students are my children throughout the year, so asking what's best for them is a big part of my job.
Students themselves and their parents have the right to determine what's best. But I'm also in agreement with you about how it's a shared responsibility. Students, while normally thought of just the learners in the classroom, are educators in their own right. Parents themselves are also educators. But I specifically agree with the shared responsibility piece because of what I previously stated. If I don't have the proper supports at my school building to support one of my students, the school and the parent(s) have to work together to decide what will be best given the situation and supports that are currently (not currently) available. When educational systems and parents work together for the benefit of the student, then we can see that student become successful at their own rate.
In all honesty, I feel like this is a concept we all could go back and forth with for hours on end. Everyone brings something new to the table each time we ask the questions about curriculum, whether it be perspective, experience, or information on a topic. So, will we really be able to determine what curriculum specifically is? Does it just have one meaning, or does it have several meanings for different situations and for all types of people? I'm interested to watch how these readings, your thoughts, and my thoughts play out and expand my own understanding of the matter, specifically in my IEP meetings I have coming up for my SE students. It's always my hope that we find ways as a team (educators and parents) to support the parent's wishes and student's academic and social needs. And I'm definitely looking forward to reading more of your thoughts on the matter as the course continues.
Thanks for the insight this cycle!
Kayla