The Feel of Currere

Abstract

Many years ago, William Pinar described the origins of currere in a stunning reply to Elliot Eisner’s paper at the 1976 Milwaukee Curriculum Theory Conference. At the conclusion of the reply, Pinar used one word—Feel—several times. This word, Feel, has been at the core of my teaching, research, and writing for many years and the purpose of this article is to take a deeper dive into the potential role that feel may play in the currere process. In the article, I provide some personal background, and then offer a perspective as to how and why the “Outer Curriculum” has negated much of the felt experience in education. The latter part of the article focuses on currere as “Inner Curriculum” and why Feel, although underestimated, misunderstood, and underused, should be a vital contributor to experiencing an education rather than being schooled.