Recognize in contemporary curriculum debates and policies the prevailing “technical” conception of curriculum, and to consider alternatives to the prevailing conception.
Articulate what the Tyler Rationale is, its origins, and its influence on curriculum development and reform.
Articulate a critique of the Tyler Rationale approach to curriculum thinking, while identifying alternative approaches to thinking about and “doing” curriculum.
Inquire into the extent to which the Tyler Rationale has influenced students’ own understanding of curriculum and their identity in relationship to curriculum (what curriculum is?, who does curriculum work?, how one conducts curriculum work?, etc.).
Understand the field of curriculum (curriculum studies/curriculum theory/curriculum design-assessment-evaluation) as including an immensely diverse array of theoretical and practical orientations, each possessing something to appreciate and offer to those interested in learning, teaching, leading, researching AND each suggestive of a set of beliefs open to critical inquiry.
Identify the major “post-reconceptualist” contributors to curriculum studies
Summarize the commitments/orientations of “post-reconceptualist” curriculum perspectives including: critical/emancipatory; racial; gender; post-structuralist/post-modern; phenomenological; biography/auto-biography; environmental/sustainability/place-based; arts-based/aesthetic; theological.
Articulate one’s own understanding of the theory-practice “divide,” particularly as these (theory, practice, praxis) function in one’s own life (professionally and personally)
Appreciate the field of curriculum in the context of the history of ideas derived from both the humanities and sciences, while recognizing the enduring quality of these ideas in contemporary curriculum discussions, deliberations, and practices.
Identify and define the major ideas that have informed curriculum (from the 18th century to the present).
Identify major ideas (present from the beginning of the curriculum field) that continue to inform and animate contemporary curriculum debates, policies, and practices.
Articulate why and how (curriculum) ideas matter—as the basis (premises) upon which curriculum debate and policy are framed and enacted
Understand the field of curriculum as the intersection of differing political and moral visions, where resides answers to the questions: what does it mean to be human?; what is truth?; and what is the ‘good’ society?
Articulate the various ways that curriculum can be understood to be “political”
Recognize in contemporary curriculum “artifacts” (“texts,” policies, debates, research, etc.) to expose and understand implicit political and moral dimensions
Inquire into one’s own implicit and explicit political and moral commitments residing in one’s own views on curriculum and education
Know oneself—given who you are in the various contexts (occupational, community, etc.) to which you belong—more fully and in relation to “curriculum” in its various meanings and enactments.
Identify—drawing upon contemporary curriculum scholarship—differing definitions and enactments of curriculum. Then, having identified the differing definitions, to address the question, So What?
Articulate the range of contemporary issues in which contemporary curriculum scholarship is engaged. Then, to articulate the enduring concerns expressed within these issues.
Inquire into how your understanding and enactment of curriculum is being challenged or altered or disrupted, OR how it is evolving as a consequence of your own curriculum vitae (your life course) both prior to and during CI 550.
