“Curriculum”

Professional Development Series

Derek AdamsA30209487 – TE 818

I will endeavor to explain “what is curriculum” using the various dimensions of curriculum as a spring board.

Be cautioned…I provide my own insight and opinions throughout. These will be marked by italics and the Caution image.

Agenda What makes up curriculum? Philosophical Dimension Political Dimension Moral Dimension Cultural Dimension Global Dimension Food for thought Reference List

What makes up curriculum?

Take a second to think of your answer…

Some common answers: Textbook Benchmarks/standards District Curriculum Document

What makes up curriculum? Cuban (1995)

Official curriculum Taught curriculum Learned curriculum Tested curriculum

Eisner (1994) Explicit curriculum Implicit/Hidden curriculum Null curriculum

Hybrid curriculum, in my view: Official/Explicit curriculum

State Benchmarks, Curriculum documents Taught/Null Curriculum

What I actually choose to teach, subject matter, and values.

This can also be what I do not teach. Learned Curriculum

What students actually “take” from what I teach. Tested Curriculum

What knowledge is given worth through my eyes.

Philosophical Dimension

“the problem is not that we do not know how to make schools better, but that we are fighting among ourselves about what goals schools should pursue” (Labaree,1997, p.40)

What is the goal of curriculum?

Philosophical Dimension Democratic Equality

“education is seen as a public good, designed to prepare people for political roles”

Social Efficiency “education is seen as a public good designed to

prepare workers to fill structurally necessary market roles”

Social Mobility “education is seen as a private good designed to

prepare individuals for successful social competition for the more desirable market roles”

Labaree, 1997, p. 42

Philosophical Dimension

Which do you see as being more important? Democratic Equality

Prepare citizens Social Efficiency

Prepare for jobs Social Mobility

Promote competition for social positions

Philosophical Dimension Democratic Equality

Do we not all get a vote, a role in governing ourselves?

Social Efficiency The reality is we all need jobs, shouldn’t

we prepare our students for them? Social Mobility

We compete with each other every day, for jobs, goods, and opportunities.

Philosophical Dimension

There must be a balance of all three. We all get a vote, but we all know not

everyone feels empowered to vote. We all needs jobs, but sometimes it is

who you know that gets your foot in the door.

We all know that climbing up the social ladder is difficult, it’s the rare story that makes it to the top.

Political Dimension

“schooling is through and through political” We witness it repeatedly in the constant:

Battles over goals Funding Whose knowledge is or is not included Who should decide all of this

(Apple, 1991, p. 279)

Political Dimension “Our task, is not to reject the politics of

curriculum…but to recognize how politics works, to use it, and to recognize what is at stake” (Apple, 1991, p. 289)

Who has the power in regards to curriculum? State? District? Teacher? Student?

Political Dimension

It would be difficult for a single teacher to enact large scale change. If enough teachers join together they

have a chance. If enough teachers enact small scale

change, it will make a difference.

Where can you enact change?

Moral Dimension “Most of us usually go about our work in

classrooms unaware that our daily actions emit moral messages”

“this curriculum, this way of teaching, this way of conducting ourselves, and this way of treating young human beings,[tells students that it] is better than others”

(Hansen, 1995)

Moral Dimension

What do we choose to teach? What do we leave out? What do our actions tell our students?

Our daily actions impact our students in ways we are unaware of.

What we say, do, and “deliver” to our students shapes their lives.

Cultural Dimension

Delpit’s 5 premises (1988):1. Issues of Power are enacted in classrooms2. There are codes/rules for participating in

power3. These codes/rules are a reflection of those

who have Power4. If you are not a member of the Power group,

being told the rules makes it easier to join5. Those with Power are the least aware of it.

Cultural Dimension1. Issues of Power are enacted in classrooms

• Teacher over student2. There are codes/rules for participating in power

• “proper” English, attire3. These codes/rules are a reflection of those who

have Power• Your rules, are what you follow, and thus your

students4. If you are not a member of the Power group,

being told the rules makes it easier to join• Without knowing the rules how can you play?

5. Those with Power are the least aware of it.• “the culture one is immersed in is often the most

difficult to see” (Eisner, 1994, p. 95)

Cultural Dimension “only by piling up specific, communally

shared information can children learn to participate in complex cooperative activities with other members of their community” (Hirsch, 1988)

This information, the knowledge of how to act and behave, is what empowers a person.

Cultural Dimension

“middle-class children acquire mainstream literate culture by daily encounters with other literate people. But less privileged children are denied consistent interchanges with literate persons and fail to receive this information at school” (Hirsch, 1988)

Cultural Dimension

An extreme example: Tyler, a 15 year old from an extremely

poor family. How will he get access to the “Power”

language? How will he get access to the written “Power”

language? What we teach. We must make sure to explicitly

teach that which give students “Power”. Cultural information, “proper” English, written English, and what we deem acceptable behavior.

Global Dimension

“Globalization, the increasing integration of world economies through trade and financial transactions, involves movements of goods, people, and money across national and geographic borders” (Zhao, 2007, p. 9)

Global Dimension

“citizens must be able to competently negotiate cultural differences, manage multiple identities, comfortably interact with people from different cultures, and confidently move across cultures” (Zhao, 2007, p. 16)

Global Dimension Our students are competing not only

against their fellow citizens for jobs, but against citizens of other countries.

How can an American student compete against a European who is trilingual?

How can an American student, who has never left the country, deal with foreign cultures?

Technological Dimension

There is new technology every year.

The computer you buy in January is considered “slow” by December.

10 years ago, would this presentation have been done through Power Point?

Technological Dimension

What does technology look like in your classroom?

What do you actually use in your curriculum?

Do your students have access to it outside of class?

Technological Dimension Teaching technology shouldn’t be teaching

a student to use a computer program. This program will be old news in a few years.

We should instead teach students how to be inquisitive, how to learn about technology on their own, and also positive uses for it.

Almost all students have access to computers, but what do they use it for?

Food for thought…

“we teach what we teach largely out of habit, and in the process neglect areas of study that could prove to be exceedingly useful to students” (Eisner, 1994, p. 103)

Food for thought…

Who has the power over your curriculum?

What is the goal of your curriculum? What do you actually teach, besides

your subject’s information? Do all your students feel included,

do they have the skills needed to succeed?

Reference ListApple, M.W. (1991). Conservative agendas and progressive possibilities:

Understanding the wider politics of curriculum and teaching. Education and Urban Society, Vol. 23, No. 3, 279-291.

Cuban, L. (1995). The hidden variable: How organizations influence teacher responses to secondary science curriculum. Theory Into Practice, Vol. 34, No. 1, 4-11.

Delpit, L. (1988). The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people’s children. Harvard Educational Review, 58(3), 280-298.

Eisner, E.W. (1994). The three curricula that all schools teach. From the The educational imagination: On design and evaluation of school programs. (3rd. ed) New York: Macmillan

Hansen, D.T. (1995). Teaching and the moral life of classrooms. Journal for a Just and Caring Education. Vol. 2, 58-74.

Hirsch, E.D. (1988). Cultural literacy. New York: Vintage BooksLabaree, D. F. (1997). Public goods, private goods: The American struggle

over educational goals. American Educational Research Journal. Vol. 34 Zhao, Y. (2007). Education in the flat world: Implications of globalization on

education. Edge Magazine (Phi Delta Kappa International), 2(4). 1-19.