Week 6

Curriculum Policy and the Politics of What Should Be Learned in Schools]: Although the curriculum is a fundamental part of the framework of schooling, curriculum decisions and choices are shaped in no small measure by other considerations—ideology, personal values, issues in the public domain, and interests. Curriculum decisions are often part of a much larger public debate that often extends beyond education to broader questions of available goods.

There is, and never will, be a holistic truth to what should be taught in schools. All that is taught will be influenced by someone or something, and unfortunately, this is undeniable. Further, what IS taught in schools compared to what SHOULD be taught in schools is vastly different, as the Saskatchewan curriculum would prove. The only way this discrepancy can be narrowed is through the Henry Janzen way; get a larger teacher influence in the curriculum development. The perspective of an actively working teacher within a curriculum document has immense benefits and will ultimately result in a better learning environment. 

[The Saskatchewan Way: Professional-Led Curriculum Development]: Curriculum is complicated. At first glance, one might think that curriculum is just a set of documents to be taught to students. However, as you delve deeper and consider everything that is taught and learned in a classroom, the curriculum becomes much more involved … Curriculum is ‘a complicated system of interpretation, interactions, transmissions – planned and unplanned.’ The curriculum is complicated – particularly when examined within its relationship with teaching.

I agree that the curriculum is largely a document that is overlooked. It was not until this class that I started to look into and question what really the curriculum is. The idea that it is only a document of what teachers need to teach and what students need to learn is a vast underestimation of what the curriculum document entails. Looking into the curriculum further than the basics of what is taught, we get an understanding of far more than the learning that goes in within our schools. When critically looked at, the curriculum tells us about the government’s intentions, its influence, and just how little influence teachers have. We can identify these by what is stated in the curriculum, what is not, and what is suggestive. As a preservice teacher, this information is all shocking. I also do not think that it would be far off to say that most people would be surprised to find out just how little teachers are involved in the making of the curriculum.