The readings Democratic Citizenship Education and Molded Images both encourage discussions around the topic of social justice in schooling. The first text provided a much more broad description and analysis of the histories and roles of incorporating issues of social justice into a school setting. It was interesting to learn how the history of legislation around social justice issues, powered by the inequalities of capitalism, was so tightly tied with its integration into the school curriculum as a way to protect youth. Since justice has become an important focus in schools, these environments have been seen as a place where all children are equal in opportunity and resources provided to them. Seeing the way school systems work today, however, one can see that this is definitely not always the case. Often, the curriculum can actually work to reproduce the exact inequalities it attempts to destruct.
Even so, these issues may not always exist strictly in the curriculum provided by the ministry of education. Partnered with the explicit or actual curriculum, teachers work with an implicit or hidden curriculum as well. As described in Democratic Citizenship Education, “A hidden curriculum is a side effect of formal education…[including] norms, values and beliefs that are implicit to the curriculum foci, classroom resources, institutional structures, grading practices and teaching methods”. This understanding of implicit curriculum reminded me of the importance of understanding individual experience in working within an urban setting (this theme was first seen in the Ayers, Daniel and Chambers readings from PED 3150, week 1). There are so many external factors that affect the atmosphere of a classroom (many of which vary in urban settings compared to other school settings). By understanding these factors, one can then better understand how the effects of the implicit curriculum, and the way it is received by students, may vary between urban and non-urban schools. These readings make me wonder how school atmospheres are affected by student and teacher reactions or abilities to adapt to explicit and implicit curricula and how the implicit curricula will be focused upon in classrooms without necessarily addressing the issues directly. The second reading also works heavily around the theme of reproduced inequalities in schools. Speaking more directly about inequalities between First Nation people and non-Natives, Fletcher explains how the curriculums of Canada have continually misrepresented or left out teachings of First Nations peoples, culture and history. Often, even when Canadian multiculturalism is incorporated into the curriculum in some form, there is little portrayal of this group in a modern sense. This narrative contributes to maintaining a “Romantic Mythical Order” which paints First Nations peoples as uncivilized helpers of white people. As someone who went to school in suburban Ottawa, I very much understand the concerns surrounding the incorporation of native teachings into the curriculum. I personally had very little exposure to First Nations culture or people and, as the author joked about in their piece, I literally watched the film “Dancing with Wolves” to fulfill the “first native perspective” component of the curriculum. With so little focus and the out-dated, inaccurate representations of this prominent Canadian culture, I feel sad to realize how little I know regarding First Nations, Inuit and Metis culture as a Canadian. Both readings also address how positive social change requires the use of schools and curriculum as an agent that transmits current information about minorities to the general population. The curriculum can be adapted, for instance, to better represent First Nations peoples and culture for both Native and non-Native communities, thereby allowing all Canadians to become more aware and appreciative of the history, differences and similarities between both groups. By using school as a platform where long histories of different groups can be dissected and better understood, equality for all people can be just that much closer to becoming a reality. Social change is a never ending process that we must be open to in order to affect positive change both in and out of schools. References Davis, B. et.al. (2015). Moment 3: Democratic Citizenship Education. In Engaging Minds: Cultures of Education and Practices of Teaching. NY, Routledge. Fletcher, S.D. (2000). Molded Images: Frist Nations People, Representation and the Ontario School Curriculum in Sel Coldstein et.al., eds., Weaving Connections, Toronto, On.
1 Comment
Linda Radford
9/26/2015 05:12:40 pm
Hi Nicole, I think you are making an important connection between what you are learning about the implicit curriculum to what we have been reading about in Ayers, Daniel and Chambers. Individual experience is an important site of excavation if we are to better understand how schooling often has an impact on social difference and issues of equality. Also your statement that "social change is a never ending process that we must be open to in order to affect positive change both in and out of schools" is significant, as it speaks to the nature of being human where authority and power are ongoing issues that always play into the mix of schooling and society Thank you for your engaging response.
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