Welcome to CI 550 - Overview of Contemporary School Curriculum!

This master's level course intends to engage people interested in schooling to explore curriculum as a moral and political practice. The hope is that through sustained reflection and inquiry, we will recognize and act upon the transformational possibilities implicit in curriculum.

Three ideas/practices have been important to how this course is structured. The first idea is engagement. Your engagement with ideas, with activities, with your own thinking/feeling, and with your peers' thoughts, feelings, and stories are central to our journey. You'll recognize the idea of engagement in practice in the kinds of assignments you're asked to complete, in the structure of the course itself, and in the goals and objectives established. Absent engagement of the kind described here, it is unlikely that you'll even "journey" at all!

The second idea important to how this course is structured is reflection and inquiry. Reflection and inquiry in practice means that you will necessarily bring your own history, experiences, stories, and questions to ALL that you do during our shared journey. Rather than supposing that these are less relevant or significant to the learning, please suppose that these (that YOU!) are central to all the readings, all the discussions, all of the assignments, etc. that will occur during our journey. Your reflections, your questions ARE the "map" or "compass" that will inform any learning that is meaningful, authentic, and lasting.

Finally, the third important idea is community. Community as an idea-in-practice will be immediately experienced in the course structure (the idea of "tables"... to be described in the following pages). By aiming to create community during our shared journey, we are exposing the inherently moral and political natures of curriculum, and of teaching and learning. Through exposing the moral and political nature of curriculum, our class community can reflect upon, question, and enact in our lives - both professionally and personally - an orientation to curriculum that contributes to a world made more just, free, humane and beautiful for all. Now, a word about the how our journey is structured.

The course has been organized into "tables." Each "table" has the following: a topic or focus; a common (or shared) reading(s); and a list of readings from which you can select one to read individually. During the semester you will visit all five tables. Imagine walking into a room where there are five tables setup. Each table has 4-5 chairs where you might sit. You walk in, look around, and then walk around the room to read the table "tents" which have words labeling the topic to be addressed at each table. Once you've noted the topics of each table, you decide to sit down at a particular table. Once you "sit down" at a given table, you'll be working at the table for a period of time (two weeks in total). During the time that you're "sitting" at your chosen table, you'll be completing several readings: 1) readings in common (readings that you and your tablemates will be completing together) and 2) a reading that you alone will select and read. Once you've completed the readings, you'll next complete several assignments (to be described in detail later on), before you're asked to "get up", select a different table to "sit down at", and begin the readings and assignments as before.

Now, if you're still not sure what the "tables" are about, as we continue I believe your confusions will clear up. If, however, as you look ahead and you wish to ask questions, please do contact me.

You may be asking, WHY has the course been structured in this way? The overwhelming majority of courses are organized linearly. In other words, linear courses require students to together complete a set of experiences (lecture(s), readings, assignments, assessments, etc.). Then, once everyone has completed all of the experiences, together students progress to a new "block of content" to then complete the list of experiences again. The assumption in this structure is that everyone must learn "block of content 1" prior to continuing onto "block of content 2" and on and on. Does the description of "linear" now make sense? In constructing the course using the idea of "tables" the notion of a "spiraling" curriculum (versus "linear" curriculum) is introduced. Each "table" (with its readings and assignments) introduces content and a focus that is distinct BUT which doesn't presume that students need "master" pre-requisite knowledge/understandings. As students progress from table to table, you will encounter content/ideas from prior "tables," although with differing perspectives, contexts, emphases, etc. This manner of structuring the curriculum presumes that learners will re-visit ideas/content, will develop deeper levels of understanding (synthesis, analysis, etc.), and will inquire in ways personally meaningful. Also, the "table" structure (in conjunction with common and individual readings) will facilitate rich engagement, in service to inquiry and community!