ECS 203 was intended to establish a theoretical foundation to develop our understanding of how the curriculum and pedagogy are intertwined. As my journey through ESC 203 draws to an end, I reflect upon my gained knowledge of the theory of curriculum and pedagogy. I find myself thinking about myself as the student and Katia, Corey and Rubina as the teachers. Which is precisely what our roles were this semester. What prerequisite learning did they assume my classmates and I had regarding curriculum and lesson plan development.

So, what did I understand about curriculum and pedagogy before this class? Well, I am embarrassed to admit that I didn’t even understand the term pedagogy until March of this year. I knew about the importance of attendance for the retention and delivery of the curriculum. I envisioned curriculum as a wordy document that teachers used as a guideline to draw lesson plans from. That my teaching experience will be made of shared experiences and developmental milestones in the classroom. Collaboration efforts with faculty members, peers, and other professionals will provide shared knowledge and experiences to draw and build upon in my classroom. The integration of technology into the classroom can positively affect the students. Bring tools, educational applications and programs that allow for more academic subjects like literacy, science and mathematics if I work to meet the diverse needs of children in the classroom, socially, cognitively, emotionally and physically. I can encourage and nurture them, and they will grow to be outstanding individuals.

The curriculum comprises the totality of knowledge that is communicated to students during their experience at school. Knowledge and ideas which formulate the curriculum are delivered in schools through the implicit, hidden and null curriculum. The curriculum is a political agenda mandated by the government and committees that deal with public policy on how to educate children best. In creating the curriculum, there are two main focus areas: the first being appropriate subjects and the second relevant content. 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 to deliver a centralized teaching standard, so both the teachers and the students understand their position.

This brings me back to me as the student and Katia, Corey and Rubina as my teachers. The teachers this semester did not know my previous knowledge of curriculum or pedagogy. Still, they did know the required courses I needed to achieve before this class. They could refer to the curriculum to determine the possible outcomes and indicators building towards my education. As they prepared to deliver lessons in the theory of curriculum and pedagogy, the teachers created lectures and lesson plans around the following topics:  

• Curriculum and Pedagogy – An Introduction
• History of Curriculum
• The curriculum in Saskatchewan & Place-based Pedagogy
• Queering the Curriculum
• Building Curriculum
• Citizenship and the Curriculum
• Curriculum in Action

• Learning Theories & Approaches to Lesson Planning
• Approaches to Unit Planning
• Integrating Treaty Education
• Understanding Numeracy
• Understanding Literacy

There are four ways to approach curriculum theory and practice:

1. Curriculum as a body of knowledge to be transmitted, an example being the syllabus
2. Curriculum as an attempt to achieve certain ends in students – product.
3. Curriculum as a process- the observation of behaviour and practice through a curriculum
4. Curriculum as praxis- the process of creating morally conscious student in society

All curriculum approaches are essential to the curriculum’s delivery, and I relate most to the curriculum as a process. Allowing for play-based education, students to demonstrate their knowledge through the process and allow curriculum as an aesthetic experience in the classroom through play and exploration.

Through this content, I learned many curriculum scholars specializing in specific education areas, such as Maxine Greene as an educational philosopher and Aesthetic educator. I furthered my understanding of the curriculum’s history through theorists such as Ralph Tyler and John Dewey. I was surprised at how many possible concepts and topics there are surrounding the curriculum. I choose to research and critique the “Aesthetic experience” in my learning journey. Leading to a deeper understanding of the importance of aesthetics in education.

By developing a pedagogy that encourages aesthetic experiences in the classroom, teachers inspire their students to engage all their senses, promoting growth and development in holistic learning, cognitively, emotionally, physically and socially. Although children can develop at different rates, holistic development is incorporated with the Saskatchewan curriculum. Another component of aesthetic learning is Dewey’s referral to two types of observation; perception and recognition. As a future teacher, I need to be aware of my students perceive me in the classroom, for my schemes will inherently affect how the students recognize and categorize the creation of their schemes. By understanding and incorporating the idea of both recognition and perception in our teaching pedagogies, we as teachers can help better support students in their education and build their schemes from the curriculums we teach. My research on the aesthetic experience in education has deepened my understanding of how sensory experiences shape our schemes. This affects how I am seen and related to in the classroom. Aesthetic education allows instruction to be visual, affective and free to interpretations allowing it to be beneficial to any learner, the critical, the visual, the hands one. I hope to plan how to deliver the curriculum, so my student my grow and develop and gain a connection to their education and apply their future endeavours.

The curriculum in action was a fun and educational part of this course. I enjoyed learning how pop culture can be relevant in the classroom to help students become social activists and retain the lessons being taught. It provides a way to make the curriculum relatable to today’s youth.

Literacy and language are crucial in the delivery and understanding of education. It will be my job as a future educator to educate myself on creating a multilingual classroom that encourages diversity in the narrative. It is essential to recognize that there is more than one narrative. By learning about understanding numeracy concerning the curriculum, I have discovered that my commonsense leads to a basis that there is only one narrative in math. This realization drives me to be better and do better by educating myself in the dominant narrative of society and all narratives to provide a biased and judgment-free environment for my students to grow in.

A significant part of the curriculum that includes literacy narratives is the integration of Treaty Education as a vital role in the curriculum. Treaty Education is essential in the classroom, regardless of cultural diversity. If the school is predominately white culture, they will benefit from learning how we are all Treaty people with a shared history and the importance of education over ignorance. As Canada moves towards Truth and Reconciliation across the country, students need to understand why the Calls to Action is vital to move away from racism, discrimination and bigotry. Educating all children about the importance of treaty education will inspire growth and maturity in citizens that are part of treaty land will teach and guide future generations on the importance of treaties planned in Canada’s creation. Colonialism has affected many First Nations, Métis and Inuit negatively living in Canada. The mistreatment of residential survivors and the displacements of lands have created intergenerational trauma, and education is the first step towards breaking that cycle. To protect our future, we need to understand our past, so Canada will not repeat those mistakes. As a future educator, I can start this process in my classroom.

In my learning experience, I did come across a realization that rewrote my schema of commonsense. I had always considered commonsense to be my creation of knowledge. I determined what was shared and what was not, rather commonsense being an assumed cultural knowledge, but the problem with commonsense is it only shared in the setting in which it is learned. My commonsense of curriculum and teaching pedagogy is that as a teacher, the curriculum is predetermined by the ministry of education and teaches 1000’s diverse children with the same broad brush. That commonsense shows us that we teach how we were taught and that our pedagogy is familiar to our experience. As a teacher, it will be my job to apply the curriculum to the classroom setting to adhere to the guidelines and outcomes. With proper education, my teaching pedagogy can help me better understand the curriculum and apply it to an individual level. I am creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for the students to learn within. I will need to be aware of how I apply” commonsense” into the teaching world and make sure to “look beyond” the lesson.