In this article, ‘common sense’ is defined as something that everyone should know. The idea of common sense is that through its process individuals become aware of their everyday lives and adapt to various presumptions as ‘normal’. “It’s just common sense that schools teach these things and students do those things (Kumashiro, 2009, p.XXXV).
As future educators, it is important to pay attention to ‘common sense’ to become intellectually aware professionals. Common sense is an influence in curriculum and pedagogy as it limits what is considered to be consistent with the purposes of schooling. Common sense does not tell us what schools could be doing but only illuminates what they should be doing. Common sense has been rooted within us so deeply that we do not even question the practices and perspectives that have always been in place.
Many people feel the social pressure to conform as it can bring a sense of comfort by making sense of the repeated things we do each and every day. As individuals, we must practice the social idea of being anti-oppressive educators by recognizing the normalcies of schooling privilege that benefit certain groups and identities over others based on race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disabilities, language, age and other social markers. These instances of oppression are masked by concepts that make us think that this is the way that things are supposed to be. As a future educator, I feel it is vital to pay attention to common sense and how it can affect the lives of those around me.
My common sense of curriculum and pedagogy is that the curriculum is a document provided by the Ministry of Education to form the fundamentals of teaching and provide an outline for what should be taught while using the appropriate pedagogical teaching methods to maximize student learning.
References:
Kumashiro. (2009). Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning Toward Social Justice, pp. XXIX-XL