Blog Post #6
Part 1
According to the Levin article, the development of curriculum is a very political process. There are two main discussions that continuously come up during the development process. The first being a discussion about which subjects are important/necessary enough to be implemented into the curriculum. How long should students spend learning this material? What grade should this be taught? These are just a few of the questions that are brought up when professionals are creating these guidelines. The second major discussion is over the content that is being taught within these subjects. Questions such as: should every student be required to study Shakespeare in high school? Or: should we require students to learn algebra? These are a few questions that might circulate during this discussion. From reading this article, it can be inferred that the process of creating curriculum is lengthy and complicated. Many factors are taken into consideration before the final copy is released. Something that surprised me is how many different groups are interested in having a say in what is included into the curriculum. I have never thought about the fact that this may be because they view school as the main place where student’s mindsets and values are shaped, and they want to be a part of this development.
Part 2
The fact that treaty education was implemented into the curriculum in 2007 orchestrates the fact that the government is heavily involved in deciding a large portion of the content that is deemed important. As the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was founded in 2008, I think adding treaty education to the curriculum in 2007 was a big step in reconciliation aimed towards the younger generations who are currently in school. I am guessing that there may have been a lot of pushback from those who are uneducated about the mistreatment and harm that residential school and colonization caused for Indigenous people in Canada. People may wonder why only this culture is so prevalent in the curriculum.
Hi Stephanie, great post! You made some similar connections to me in part 2 of your post. I also thought a lot of tension would be felt by those who were ignorant of the importance of treaty ed. It is easy to understand why these people feel like this, but I often think how do we get them to understand the reality of false narratives on the subject when they have been prevalent in their lives for so long? Its too late for many of them to be educated about it in school, but I think perhaps their own children could be the gateway to understanding. What their children learn in school will undoubtedly get back to them, and if us, as teachers, can achieve successful education on the topic then hopefully it will have a trickle down effect.
Thanks for sharing!
I agree that implementing treaty education into the curriculum was a massive leap forward, hopefully it only gets better as time goes on !