Course Description:
This course explores the philosophical, political, and sociological foundations of curricula. The foundation will lead students to critically examine 21st century curriculum models in relation to their ability to meet the needs of diverse learners.
The course adopts a framework of Schwab's curriculum commonplaces (teacher, learner, subject matter, and milieu) to explore the meaning of curriculum and curriculum making. Within this framework and through readings, online discussions, and assignments, course participants will examine possibilities and complexities shaped in a deepening understanding and a self-reflexive approach to one's own experiences of curriculum in teaching practice.
Instructor: Dr. Lynne Driedger-Enns
Reflection:
One thing that I appreciated about this course was the ever-positive support from Lynne. Her comments on my work work meaningful and thoughtful. She was available for help via email or phone conversations and seemed genuinely happy to show me the path, or multiple paths, when I was was lost.
I had originally registered to take this course over the summer of 2018, but just as the course began my mother, who lives in New Brunswick, needed to be moved into a nursing home so I needed to go home to support her move and my dad adapting to living alone. Lynne had graciously offered to help me manage the coursework and my family commitments but after having seen the syllabus, I knew that I would not be able to proficiently manage both so I dropped the course.
I must admit that as the fall of 2019 arrived I was not looking forward to taking this course. I knew that it would require deep self-reflections of my teaching practice and I was not looking forward to that. There are many points in my career where I have wished, years after the fact, that I could have had a "do-over" and I wasn't particularly keen on sharing these thoughts with others. When I realized that not only did I need to share these moments with my professor, but that I had to share them with my fellow students, I almost dropped the course again. (It is a required course so that wasn't a real option!)
This course pushed me to my limits in many ways. In addition to the sharing of personal stories, the idea of writing using personal narratives and narrative inquiry was hard for me to grasp after all my efforts "perfecting" my scholarly writing for my other courses. How was I supposed to conclude all my writings with questions? On top of this, the amount of reading required was overwhelming to keep up with. I was so thankful that I didn't try to accomplish this over a summer. The discussion forum was a great way to connect with and learn from other students. I found the most challenging part of the forum was that many people waited until the deadline to post so it gave me very short window to respond to their writing.
This course enabled me to open my eyes toward different perspectives that I might not have come across otherwise. The video below helped me understand the importance of relationship and getting to know the story of the people with whom we interact, whether it be staff, students or parents.
One thing that I appreciated about this course was the ever-positive support from Lynne. Her comments on my work work meaningful and thoughtful. She was available for help via email or phone conversations and seemed genuinely happy to show me the path, or multiple paths, when I was was lost.
Although I found the introspective nature of this course to be challenging, I think that it was also the highlight of this course. Being able to examine our own thoughts and feelings is very important when leading. We must reserve judgment and try to understand the perspective and "story" of the people we lead.
This course was one where I often reminded myself, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger". It was a huge amount of work and brain power, and I am all the better for it.
My chosen assignment is a narrative inquiry into a knowledge community in transition. It was a hard look at my experiences as I entered my new school as a principal. This course helped me understand and articulate my missteps and how I can better support curriculum-making with my school and larger community.
I chose to include my final assignment in my portfolio because it was so hard to write. Lynne encouraged us to submit a section at a time so that we could get her feedback. After I received my first section back, with comments, my heart sunk. Although all of Lynne's comments were helpful, there were just so many. "Why is this so hard for me?", I asked myself. After a short pity-party, I read the comments, spoke to Lynne, and got my head back in the game, and took another shot. (This following quote I keep in my office helped for this paper.)
When I hit my final "submit" I am pretty sure that I had tears in my eyes. What story would I live to tell about this course?
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