Post #5 – Response to the Levin Article and Saskatchewan Treaty Education Document

According to the Levin article, how are school curricula developed and implemented? What new information/perspectives does this reading provide about the development and implementation of the school curriculum? Is there anything that surprises you or maybe concerns you? After reading pages 1-4 of the Treaty Education document, what connections can you make between the article and the implementation of Treaty Education in Saskatchewan? What tensions might you imagine as part of the development of the Treaty Education curriculum?

The Levin article provides a lot of insight into how the curriculum is developed and who plays a part in the making of the new curriculum. Many different people collaborate and work together to revise the curriculum. It was surprising and concerning to realize how much politics influences the curriculum. I also never realized how big of a stake the textbook companies held. Levin mentions that voters have a say in the revision of the curriculum. This makes sense to a point. Voters are the ones who elect the ruling political party and premier, who have a big say in the curriculum. However, when it comes down to individual voters or community members, they have zero to no say in anything to do with the curriculum unless they are politically important or have a lot of money. Teachers, parents, students, and educational experts have little say in the curriculum. Politicians, corporations, and textbook companies have more say than those implementing and teaching this curriculum. They have more say than the people the curriculum is directly impacting. It is crazy to think about and shocking once you realize that it seems as though what benefits the province and big companies is more important in creating a curriculum than what benefits the students.

After reading the Treaty document, I wondered how much of an impact the government must have had in its creation and what the government’s reasons were. Implementing Treaty Education in Saskatchewan seems like it would be the government’s move to try to stay popular amongst most people and avoid scandals and negative articles being written about how the party or premier. If the government truly cared about educating students on treaties and Indigenous cultures, there would have been more than two elders involved in the creation of it. Thet could have included Indigenous educators and principals. It is hard to believe that such an important document only had 19 people on the sub-committee. I feel like you need more than 19 people’s perspectives and opinions to create a complete curriculum document full of all the important information. There should be more community members who are not part of the Tribal Councils, there should be more educators, and there definitely should be more elders, and either all or most of these extra people should be Indigenous people. 

Readings

Curriculum Policy And The Politics Of What Should Be Learned In Schools by Levin – Curriculum policy and the politics of what should be learned in schools by Levin

Saskatchewan Treaty Education Document – https://www.edonline.sk.ca/bbcswebdav/library/materials/english/docs/Treaty%20Education%20Outcomes%20%26%20Indicators%20-%20Feb%2021%202013.pdf