02 : 780 (NET)
Dr. Ellen Watson
Summer 2023 (Term 1)
Overview of Educational Issues
Course Outline
Course Overview
02:780, Curriculum Foundations, was a mandatory course for Master of Education students in the educational administration stream. I completed the course over a period of 20 days in the summer of 2023. We met for 2 hours a day on Zoom, Monday through Thursday and completed daily readings posted on the class’s Microsoft Teams site. The course served as an overview of the history of curriculum in education, highlighting its evolution over time and exploring many scholars’ views on what curriculum should be. Active discussions about curriculum-as-planned vs. curriculum-as-lived took up significant space in the course when we investigated the complexity of teaching all students in our diverse, inclusive classrooms. Assignments included daily pictographs and reflections (called a winter count), a group exploration of a current curriculum scholar, and a final paper focusing on the use of curriculum in our current school.
Like many of the accelerated courses I have taken in the program, this one was fast-paced and intense. In some ways, these accelerated courses are nice because I can accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. However, the opportunity to let new ideas “simmer” for a bit before drawing conclusions is often missed. I found myself wishing I had a little more time to reflect on new concepts between each class and before submitting my final assignment. Having said that, there were a number of profound learning concepts discussed in this course that helped to reshape my view of curriculum and how I can adapt my teaching pedagogy to reach more students in my class. One powerful piece of learning that I did not expect to play such a pivotal role in my education journey was the systemic issues that can inadvertently hold back students of non-Eurocentric cultures. This first came up inIssues in Educational Administration, again inAdministrative Leadership in Educational Institutions, quite prominently in my previous course onIndigenous Language Reclamation and Revitalization, and again in this course. There are systems in place that do not serve all of our students equally, including our curriculum. As educators, we must find ways to balance the curriculum-as-planned with the curriculum-as-lived in order to make space for the diversity of needs and perspectives in today’s classrooms. When I think about comparing my learning journey to a hike, I would have expected to find a fallen tree from time to time, but I would not have expected to find a fallen tree that only blocked specific individuals who came from different backgrounds, cultures, or identities. It has been eye opening to recognize what barriers may exist within our education curriculum that prevent all students from achieving their full potential.
Artifact 1
WINTER COUNT
This assignment is the second “winter count” of three that was turned in. Following each class, we were asked to find or create an illustration or graphic that represented our main takeaway from the readings or class discussions that day. In addition to the image, we were expected to write a paragraph reflecting on our learning, goals, or questions from the topics discussed. This exercise was based on the Lakota practice of Waniyetu Wowapi, which is a collection of pictographs that represent historical moments in time. In my case, these were historical moments in my thinking as I progressed through the course.
I chose to include the winter count assignment from the second week of the course because this was the week that I started to feel my thinking stretch. My understanding of curriculum was challenged when we began to study the writings of Maxine Greene, William Pinar, and Samuel Rocha, in particular. These scholars wrote of the idea that curriculum should be thought of as more than just a set of outcomes that need to be taught and assessed. Instead, curriculum could be thought of as a moving scale that promotes critical thinking skills in an ever-evolving world. Further to that, I began to consider the systemic barriers in place that may be preventing students from different cultures, identities, abilities, and backgrounds from accessing the intended curriculum. As mentioned earlier, it would have been helpful to have a little more time to sit with these concepts and piece together a clearer understanding; my winter counts tended to ask more questions than point to new, clear understandings. In many ways, figure 2 of this assignment – a depiction of an exhausted, stressed emoji – most closely reflects my thought process during this week. However, the growth that came from stretching my thinking about curriculum in such an abstract way was immense.
Artifact 2
DIVERSITY, REPRESENTATION, AND RECONCILIATION: USING A TRADITIONAL, CONCEPTUAL-EMPIRICIST, AND RECONCEPTUALIST FRAMEWORK
The final assignment for this course was to synthesize what we had taken away from the course and apply it to the curriculum we were using in our current school at the time. A particular concept that I had identified with because of its well-rounded approach to curriculum was William Pinar’s framework of traditional (measurable outcomes), conceptual-empiricist (social interests and critical thinking development), and reconceptualist (values-based, encouraging societal change) lenses. With this approach in mind, I examined how my school was tackling the issues of diversity, representation, and reconciliation.
I enjoyed writing this paper because it provided me with an opportunity to reflect on the work I was doing at my school, assess the impact it was having on students, and examine it through a curricular framework that I had been unfamiliar with before taking this class. I work at an incredibly diverse school, so the topics of diversity, representation, and reconciliation are important to our students. As a staff, we want to ensure that we are being culturally sensitive, supportive, and inclusive with the work we do. Reflecting on how our school approached these topics in the previous school year, I realized we were doing quite well from the conceptual-empiricist and reconceptualist lenses. Indeed, many of the projects we had engaged students with throughout the year were meaningful and grounded in social justice. However, we had some work to do in areas of the traditional lens. Namely, while students were being exposed to a variety of ideas and engaging in learning about diversity and reconciliation, we had not yet put clear, measurable outcomes in place to ensure students were applying this new learning in all areas of life. Our assessment practices in this area needed work. Throughout a typical school year, we are often so busy with projects, report cards, or professional development that some aspects of what we are trying to accomplish get overlooked. This assignment forced me to examine our school’s work with a critical eye – and that is always a good thing.
