Week 6: What is the curriculum? In Curriculum Policy and the Politics of What Should Be Learned in Schools, “curriculum is defined as an official statement of what students are expected to know and be able to do.”1 The making of the curriculum is a political agenda mandated by the government and deals with public policy on how to teach children best. “Public policy is about the rules and procedures governing public sector activity—what they are and how they are made.”1 Once the government and committees approve a standard centralized curriculum, it is handed down to the chain to school boards and faculty. After this, it becomes the teacher’s responsibility to develop a lesson plan that adheres to the curriculum. How a teacher meets these requirements is by sifting through the curriculum to find outcomes and indicators that apply to the lesson. The disadvantage of following the curriculum is that we are continually evolving as a society and the curriculum often becomes outdated or the topics no longer supported.

When creating the curriculum, there are two main avenues for focus. The first being, what subjects are deemed necessary for students to learn and what is not. This opens up the debate for things like which is more critical to a child’s education; the sciences or the arts. What will benefit the student and the community? How does the government effectively create the curriculum for the outcome of a contributing member to society? The second focus on the curriculum design is the actual content that is to be delivered to the students. What version of history is the preferred and accepted version? What language should be taught to all children as a second language in school? The curriculum focuses on French. Still, it would not make sense to offer language based on the diverse cultural location. What should schools and teachers focus more on? What will generate the most effective student?

A curriculum is a vital tool for teachers and students. It states what is expected of the teacher for an instructional time through education delivery and what the student can expect to learn from the provided instruction. The curriculum works as a tool to deliver a centralized teaching standard, so both the teachers and the students understand their position. The ones that use the curriculum daily do not decide what content is relevant to their particular school or classroom setting, creating conflict because schools differ across the province from rural to urban and city center. The curriculum is an essential building block in the school that dictates instructional time and content but is crucial to the education system. when first working with the curriculum, it can just look like pages of documentation. Still, after repeatedly using the outcomes and indicates, it becomes easier to navigate.

For my future classroom, I will have to learn how to use the curriculum to effectively benefit my students and myself.

Works Cited

• [1] Levin, B. (2008). Curriculum policy and the politics of what should be learned in schools. In F. Connelly, M. He & J. Phillion (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of curriculum and instruction (pp. 7 – 24). Los Angeles, CA: Sage. Available on-line from: http://www.corwin.com/upm-data/16905_Chapter_1.pdf.
• The Saskatchewan Way: Professional-Led Curriculum Development. Available on-line from: https://www.stf.sk.ca/sites/default/files/the_saskatchewan_way_professional_led_curriculum_development.pdf