Category: ECS 203 BLOG (Page 2 of 2)

Read over the criteria for Assignment 1. Take a look at the possible scholars and/or concepts/topics.  Then, choose either a scholar or a topic/concept and begin to explore them/it. You might find a quote or an article that piques your interest. In your blog post, practice creating a short summary of what you have found. Then, finish up your blog post by outlining some next steps and possible directions for your first assignment. For reference: You should spend about two paragraphs summarizing what you’ve discovered, and one short paragraph outlining your next steps.

Love and The Curriculum 

Summary 

     The article “The Curriculum Is in Us” written in 2022, focuses on how to implement cyphers into the curriculum to allow vulnerability and relationship growth post-pandemic (Naputi et all., 2022) . Cyphers are described as how students freely contribute personal experience to respond to a question or reading (Naputi et all., 2022) . Through this activity, students build teacher-student relationships as well as student-student relationships. The beneficiaries attached to freely communicating about self-expressive topics reduces power relations in the classroom and promotes a safe and comfortable environment (Naputi et all., 2022) . 

     The article describes, “Normalizing the discussion of love not only interrupts traditional curricula and methods but also centers joy and healing;” (Naputi et all., 2022) the quotation suggests inquiry questions focussed on love as an educational tool promote overall well-being. This article is directly related to the curriculum as praxis because it describes how children connect to the context of life experience to promote healing and relationship liberation within the classroom (Naputi et all., 2022) . Within classroom discussions, students unpack their prior perceptions of love and instinctively discuss what healthy relationships look like situationally. Relationship building is a vital life skill that can be promoted and healthily discussed inside the classroom rather than avoided entirely. 

Next Steps

     To progress through this assignment, I would begin to research expressing the difficulties of implementing love into curricula and how to acknowledge teacher-student relationships in the classroom. Student-teacher interaction must feel comfortable for all those involved. I would begin to debunk why concepts may be avoided in curricula and how to appropriately discuss them. I may continue to explore what a love-based activity and curriculum look like or how it is already present. 

Resources 

Naputi, Mitchell, D., Pastrana, A., Ross, A., Hernandez-Ruiz, M., Tejeda, A., & Sealey-Ruiz, Y. (2022). The Curriculum Is in Us: Using the      Cypher to Create a Love-Based Curriculum for Youth by Youth. Language Arts, 99(6), 402–407.

How does Kumashiro define ‘commonsense?’ Why is it so important to pay attention to the ‘commonsense’? What commonsense understandings of curriculum and pedagogy do you bring with you into this course?

     Defining common sense relies on understanding limitations and the power of socialization. Kumashiro describes the influence of culture and location towards socialized normalcy of way of life. Within schools, however, Kumashiro defines common sense as a social expectation; According to Kumashiro, “[common sense] tells us that this and only this is what schools should be doing” (XXXV).

     Paying attention to common sense allows comprehension of social bias and diverse familiarity. Ignorance of the variation of common sense produces unintentional oppression. Oppressive values influence and disregard previously formed social structures. With acknowledgement and critical thinking, as future teachers, we can become adaptable to meet the needs of our students rather than conforming to the common sense social structure that has engaged our society. 

     The common sense understanding of curriculum and pedagogy that I obtain reflects experiences throughout my life. I understand curriculum as prescribed learning objectives to be completed within the school term to engage students in a societally accepted level of education. I comprehend pedagogy as a teacher influenced the form of meeting course objectives. Now that I understand the types of learners and different approaches to teaching, I can begin to conceptualize my future pedagogical values.