III. Curriculum

Curriculum: One Piece Among Many

Working on this project has kept me in a cycle of reflection. Importantly, piecing together my understanding of culturally relevant and decolonizing theories (as I did in part 1) and applying it to nuanced curricular choices and stances (as I did in part 2), has led me to a sentiment expressed by one of my professors at the beginning of my first semester: there are no blanket best practices. A teacher cannot simply pick up a culturally relevant or decolonized curriculum, teach it, and expect the results to be inherently culturally relevant or decolonizing. These theories require continuous reflection and need to be applied not just to curriculum or pedagogy, but to the very structures and systems of schooling as well. 

Thus, my initial question of what a socially just English literature curriculum looks like, and my restated question of what a culturally relevant and decolonizing curriculum looks like, doesn't have just one answer, or really any answer. Instead, this section explains the way I am personally applying these theories and considerations to my work as a curriculum writer. In Structure and Design, I detail my ideal design process, unit structure, and assessment philosophy. Next, on the Creating Local Canons page, I explore the power of localized text lists that build on knowledge of the student population. Additionally, this page contains some book lists that I found helpful to fill the gaps in my own reading. Finally, the Examples page consists of curricular units I have proposed or written. Some of these examples were made collaboratively, and others were individual endeavors, but all have built in structures for student choice and local customization to aid teachers in finding what works best for their students and context.