The Truth of Curriculum
By Benjamin Tellie
In my posts this month, I shared some things I do to stay organized, about mentoring, a middle school project about school bullying, my work in private tutoring, and a field issue. I thought I would share some of my art education experiences with you initially, but instead, as my time is almost up for this month, I want to discuss the importance of bringing more of yourself into your teaching and curriculum writing as you move forward into the fall semester with your students. Consider some questions: Where and how does curriculum begin and end, or does it have a beginning or an end? What is your truth in the curriculum you teach?
One of the most profound concepts in William Pinar’s scholarship in the curriculum studies field is that of currere—a form of autobiographical investigation about experiences both lived and informed by the world of the teacher and of the student (Pinar, 2011; Pinar, 2015). For currere to be realized and actively pursued as a concept in curriculum, teacher and student voices must be heard and their lived experiences must matter. Sometimes, it’s not always a matter of following the routine projects and objectives that lead us to certain outcomes or truths. For what is the truth of curriculum? Before Pinar’s work, our notion of curriculum has always been expressed as a noun and not a verb.
Pinar (2015) states that curriculum as “verb emphasizes action, process, and experience, in contrast to the noun, which can convey completion” (p. 110). As art teachers, taking the concept of currere into account within your own practice, what would your art curriculum look like? What would it be like this semester for some of your projects to be centered around your students’ lived experiences and interests? Perhaps, elements of autobiography and storytelling? Will it be about infusing more of you into their lives? I encourage you to stop and ask your students—what are your goals and interests? What do you like about your experience here in the artroom and at school and what’s working and what’s not working?” Have more of you and your students’ voices be heard in the curatorial process as you make your next project, lesson, unit. Can you still hit the standards? What would happen if you found your and their truths?
Thank you
I wanted to thank NAEA for hosting me and providing me the opportunity to write for the Monthly Mentor Blog for September.
Please feel free to reach out to me if I can be of help to you to think through anything in your art education pursuits or practice. I wish you the best as we begin the fall season. Many good wishes and blessings.
-BT
References
Pinar, F. W. (2011). The Character of Curriculum Studies: Bildung, Currere, and the Recurring Question of the Subject. New York: Palgrave Macmillian.
Pinar, F. W. (2015). Educational experience as lived: Knowledge, history, and alterity. Routledge: New York.