Lived Curriculum

The Teacher at the Heart of the Protest

Abstract

                      Lived Curriculum: The Teacher at the heart of protest                   

                                     Michael Maxwell

Viewed traditionally curriculum is an arrangement of subjects, a plan or course of study if you will. Conceived in this way, the curriculum is something which is done to the students through the medium of the teacher. However, there is another way to view curriculum. Curriculum may be seen as lived. Curriculum viewed as lived is a protest against this traditional view of curriculum. In this paper I will explore the lived curriculum and the role of the teacher in ensuring that the lived curriculum takes it place in the classroom as an accepted view of curriculum. I will be using an autobiographical/existential approach to the paper through the works of Greene, Pinar, Grumet, Aoki and Olson as the lenses through which I will examine this idea. I submit that teachers need to be at the heart of the protest of curriculum viewed traditionally. As a teacher myself I recognize that my role cannot simply be to implement someone else’s vision of what the curriculum is. It must be to recognize the individual personhood of each student. Each student has a life outside of the classroom and that life influences life in the classroom. The teacher needs to be aware of this and focus on the quality of the lived experience of each student in the classroom. In this way the teacher as Aoki (1993) reminds us gives legitimacy to the lived curriculum. The lived curriculum is indeed a protest of curriculum as viewed traditionally. Aoki(1993) notes that it is the lived curriculum of her students in the classroom of Miss O that is her greatest concern and not the planned curriculum as done by curriculum planners. Greene(1971) makes us aware that for students, the prescribed curriculum is an alienating construct meaningless for the learner.

. Pinar(1978) points out that currere as a method of inquiry helps individuals to recognize their own complicity in the maintenance of traditional power structures and hence to be able to make the necessary change. As Pinar (1975) notes the phase of regression allows us to look back on  our biographic experiences educationally and how those experiences have contributed to our experiences of the present. I look back at myself and recognise how my graduate studies in curriculum have made me come to see my students as individuals with their own lives and personhood and concern for the totality of their experience in school. This led to my protest of the traditional curriculum eliminating testing and then seeking to influence change through making recommendations to the principal. Fullan(1994) reminds us that teachers must be driving forces for change. To ensure that the lived curriculum becomes an important consideration, teachers must be exposed to the concept of curriculum as lived and the method of currere. In this way teachers come to a better understanding of themselves and the power to make change

                      Lived Curriculum: The Teacher at the heart of protest                   

                                     Michael Maxwell

Viewed traditionally curriculum is an arrangement of subjects, a plan or course of study if you will. Conceived in this way, the curriculum is something which is done to the students through the medium of the teacher. However, there is another way to view curriculum. Curriculum may be seen as lived. Curriculum viewed as lived is a protest against this traditional view of curriculum. In this paper I will explore the lived curriculum and the role of the teacher in ensuring that the lived curriculum takes it place in the classroom as an accepted view of curriculum. I will be using an autobiographical/existential approach to the paper through the works of Greene, Pinar, Grumet, Aoki and Olson as the lenses through which I will examine this idea. I submit that teachers need to be at the heart of the protest of curriculum viewed traditionally. As a teacher myself I recognize that my role cannot simply be to implement someone else’s vision of what the curriculum is. It must be to recognize the individual personhood of each student. Each student has a life outside of the classroom and that life influences life in the classroom. The teacher needs to be aware of this and focus on the quality of the lived experience of each student in the classroom. In this way the teacher as Aoki (1993) reminds us gives legitimacy to the lived curriculum. The lived curriculum is indeed a protest of curriculum as viewed traditionally. Aoki(1993) notes that it is the lived curriculum of her students in the classroom of Miss O that is her greatest concern and not the planned curriculum as done by curriculum planners. Greene(1971) makes us aware that for students, the prescribed curriculum is an alienating construct meaningless for the learner.

. Pinar(1978) points out that currere as a method of inquiry helps individuals to recognize their own complicity in the maintenance of traditional power structures and hence to be able to make the necessary change. As Pinar (1975) notes the phase of regression allows us to look back on  our biographic experiences educationally and how those experiences have contributed to our experiences of the present. I look back at myself and recognise how my graduate studies in curriculum have made me come to see my students as individuals with their own lives and personhood and concern for the totality of their experience in school. This led to my protest of the traditional curriculum eliminating testing and then seeking to influence change through making recommendations to the principal. Fullan(1994) reminds us that teachers must be driving forces for change. To ensure that the lived curriculum becomes an important consideration, teachers must be exposed to the concept of curriculum as lived and the method of currere. In this way teachers come to a better understanding of themselves and the power to make change