Curriculum and Instruction

Description

My initial artifact for C&T 898 is one of the first papers written for my master’s program that showcases what we have resolved academically about the learning outcome Curriculum and Instruction. The original article has been edited to some degree, but it was first submitted to C&T 709, module four, as a response paper to that module’s readings. In C&T 709 we took a reflective tour of the history, theory, and practice of Curriculum and Instruction as a foundational academic field. Module four showed examples of experimental curriculum and reconceptionalist theories with the goal of helping us understand how those theorists were pushing back against prescriptive curriculum theories.

This artifact is focused on the work of Maxine Greene (2015), specifically the video “Maxine Greene in 1998: Imagination”. In that video Dr. Greene spoke about “reflective imagination”, and “Curriculum and Consciousness”. The response paper artifact also explored the work of James Magrini (2012), and specifically cited his article “Existentialism, Phenomenology, and Education,” where he explained the following:

A common critique of existentialism in education, from the perspective of quantitative analytic/empirical” researcher, is that it is not

applicable because it defies the typical empirical model of theory-practice, wherein research results function to explain, describe, and

predict the outcome of events. (p. 4)

I tied together these two cited works with personal teaching experiences that were grounded in traditional Cherokee philosophical values. The objective of this response paper was aimed at the engagement of critical pedagogy and its action in the world and action in the community (Hallman, 2018, para. 1). We were directed to take a stance with that tenant in mind and outline the specific a specific curriculum issue to develop our own stance on that issue of critical pedagogy to demonstrate how we might express our own values to others, even those that may hold disparate opinions (Hallman, 2018, para. 2). Specifically, I explained that by constructing cognitive structures, (Greene, p. 149), to inspire our own interests while grounding them social contexts outside of our own we engage in the Cherokee traditional philosophical practice of ᎠᏎᎭ ᎢᎦᏛᏁᏗ aseha igadvndi, to free oneself, engaging our subjective identity to actually explore the material and attempt to become more detached of objective through this realization. Further, we were expected to use the course readings in Module 4 to illuminate the issues we outlined and suggest how we might reconcile and disparities between theory versus practice regarding those points (Hallman, 2018, para. 4).

Rationale

When the reflection paper that I chose for my first artifact was written, I was still learning what curriculum and instruction were about. The processes of examining these theories and writing the paper pushed me to reflect on my own value system and how that aligned in many ways with the concept of critical pedagogy. There is a strong foundation of social justice in both critical pedagogical theory and reconceptionalist ideology, using this level of critical examination also exists, in my personal experience, from our traditional Cherokee value systems. Through application of ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ otsigiduwagi, “our keetoowah”, teachings we have been resilient enough to maintain the core of our traditional Cherokee values. Ceremonial, high blood quantum, and traditional Cherokees often use the name ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ to describe ourselves and that word can be interpreted to mean various things; however, it is also our oldest name for ourselves. One of the strongest interpretations for that name is “those who rise above, or overcome''. In my reflection paper, I drew parallels between ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ teachings and some of the ideas presented by in Maxine Greene's (2015, 2017) ideas of curriculum and consciousness and imagination. The comparison between ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ values and Greene’s work allowed me to better conceptualize how to apply the concepts of my modules content that we have studied interwoven with my interpretations of Cherokee teachings to the Cherokee language environment in which I teach.

The primary result of this reflection strengthened my own identity and motivation and allowed me to reconceptualize the various ideas of the aforementioned theorists from the course to better fit my own ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ paradigm. For the artifact, I drew upon my past professional teaching experiences and spoke about how my own cultural values were a consistent source of inspiration when it came to planning what I was going to teach and how I was going to teach those content areas. These experiences did allow me to see clear ideological connections between ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ values and Greene’s (2015) idea about how social imagination can move people to find, and focus on the most useful approaches to learning in a social constructivist mindset is exactly how Cherokee language teachers can use ᎠᏎᎭ ᎢᎦᏛᏁᏗ, to free oneself, to engage themselves and their learners by using our sacred stories, overt iteration of traditional cultural values, and contextualizing ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ philosophies, in context while regarding each individuals place in that framework to engage their own subjective experiences to motivate them and empower them to integrate these Indigenous systems into the daily lives of the learners. Reflecting on Greene’s works and re-contextualizing them into an ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ framework allowed me to make parallel connections with how information, or knowledge is constructed in our traditional system and how best to further use those experiences to help learners reconstruct knowledge to strengthen their educational experiences.

My learners are all from Cherokee ancestry with a spectrum of traditional cultural backgrounds. Our traditional teachings used in a language learning environment deepen the meaning of the content they are learning by situating it in a Cherokee cultural context, allowing values to transcend the Cherokee language lexicon and transform the learning environment into a more authentic Indigenous ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ space.

Like Greene, John Dewey (Sullivan, 1966) used education as practice to envision a better world by developing experience based learning to engage and build on a learner’s interests with a greater eye to the social impacts of the present growing to fulfillment into the future (p. 391). Dewey clearly influenced many curriculum theorists and his ideas about the broad value of social influence via curriculum and instruction further grounded my own interpretation of ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ values and cultural practices.

Like Dewey, I saw the teacher’s role as a facilitator. I saw their role is guiding the democratic students on a collective journey. The process of using experiences and activities, to build the spark of a learner’s interests and develop skills to build the knowledge she needs to meet her own interpersonal needs, but also to ultimately to meet the social needs of the community (Sullivan, 1966, p. 393) is the way I came to believe we can best serve a Cherokee language learner. The community focus in both critical pedagogical theories and ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ teachings interweave in the words of Dewey to help me see more clearly an integration of praxis and theory. In my own educational settings I have also learned to take on the role of a facilitator, or rather a consciences and self conscious guide to explore the content in context, which is aligned with Dewey’s conception of a teacher’s place as stated by Sullivan (1966):“By knowing each child's needs, interests, and capacities, the teacher can guide activities through discussions and suggestions” (p. 394). In fact, our word for teacher is ᏗᏕᏲᎲᏍᎩ dideyohvsg “the demonstrator for them”. Like Dewey, I cannot help but see the learning environment as an opportunity to think of how that student can take their knowledge and push it forward to help realize a better place for themselves and by extension through its extension a better society. I am a Cherokee language activist and I cannot help but push our learners to ᎾᏑᎵᎪᎬᎾ nasulgohgvhna "never give up” and “never stop” learning by trial and error. The only way to fail in a Cherokee mindset is to give up. I implore them to make friends with elders and in exchange for time in the Cherokee language, they should give back with help around the house, cleaning, or providing other services to elderly native Cherokee speakers.

As I have delved deeper into curriculum and instructional theory, I can now see how many of the other theorists, not just Greene, have had ideas or theories that I can easily compare to other Cherokee traditional philosophies. However, to me Greene seems to capture the most abstract parallels to some of our core ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ spiritual teachings. Her writings helped me understand how my own ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ background to construct cognitive structures to inspire the interests of my own and Cherokee learners’ interests while simultaneously grounding individual consciousness to social imagination. I have learned this kind of critical pedagogical thinking can activate the social imagination of learners in any context be it educational or cultural. Often at our Ceremonial grounds, places where these teachings are openly discussed and at times debated, we will use teaching devices, material cultural artifacts that are symbolic in nature called “wampum belts”. In Cherokee we call them ᎠᏕᎳ ᏗᎦᏅᏨᎢ adela digantsv’i or ᏗᎧᏃᏩᏛᏍᏗ dikanowadvsdi. The former meaning can be translated into “beads fixed into position” and the latter is “things to follow, or use as a foundation” both interpretations speak to the ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ thought process. Using cultural artifacts, illustrates the way we can engage the social imagination of our traditions in the context of social guidance with the construction of cognitive structures. These symbolic teaching tools allow the audience to connect to the Indigenous knowledge of out ancestors while engaging in our own situated and contemporary life experiences. The stories associated with the ᎠᏕᎳ ᏗᎦᏅᏨᎢ flow between contextual contemporary and personal stories and mythological parables weaving them together in a context that dissolves the dichotomy of past and present as well as personal and collective to create a situated context allowing social imagination to flourish. There are seven of these ancient belts, or teaching devices, each one providing specific instruction about ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ behavior and values, and creating an overall theme or milieu. One in particular addresses ᎠᏎᎭ ᎢᎦᏛᏁᏗ, the transcendental practice of losing oneself to find oneself, or losing the subjective to seek the objective, and is akin to Greene’s theoretical model above. The wampum belt is made primarily of white beads made from lightening whelk, and it has emblazoned upon it three purple squares, made from beads of the quahog shells. Each square is equidistant from the other and are lined out in a straight row, one following the other. Each square is hollow or framed around a white center. The value of this belt can be expounded upon for days, but the simplest way to characterize its meaning is that the belt “is'' the three squares and the three squares “are” the belt. The purple squares that separate the field from the white squares in the foreground, are just lines to show relationship, but in fact they are of the same belt, and have the same value. This can be applied as a criticism of dualism and compartmentalization, or as a counterpoint to using barriers as a protection because they only separate one from themselves. Introspection leads to discernment, and reflection into integration.

My philosophy of curriculum is grounded in traditional Cherokee ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ ideology, which has been applied within the last five years as the curriculum supervisor for our Cherokee language program. I have been writing curriculum professionally, albeit periodically, over the past fifteen years. The writings and thoughts of various curriculum writers that we have been researching has helped me to better frame my reasoning when I write curriculum, and it will help me justify why I choose one method over another now that I am the program manager. Greene’s ideas inform my choices of how to address content with more intention, while informing teaching methodology with intentional engagement in learners’ cognitive understanding and with the hope of inspiring motivation through personal interests. Dewey’s ideas pushed me to lean into the idea of a teacher as guide or facilitator and that simple lecture may not only limit learners' engagement, but it also limits the teacher’s role. By choosing to demonstrate and become active in the educational process, teachers engage in a dialogue that allows them to be both responsive and proactively engaged in context embedded learning. It has also encouraged me to reach more deeply into my values and beliefs to help create a dialogue with our Cherokee language learners to engage them in their interests while giving them reasons to discuss the merits and purposes of the content we introduce to them in our programs. Even though the theories of Greene and Dewey will certainly influence my curriculum choices in the future, all of the articles I have read and studied during this course have given me ideas and suggestions, to support the ᎣᏥᎩᏚᏩᎩ values of our people as well as challenges to sharpen the rigor of my thinking and even as counterpoints to my preferences and comfort zones that encourage growth through critical thinking and introspection ᎠᏎᎭ ᎢᎦᏛᏁᏗ.

References

Greene, Maxine (2017). Curriculum and consciousness. In D. Flinders & S. Thornton (Eds.), The curriculum studies reader (pp. 147-

158). New York: Routledge.

Hallman, Heidi L. (2018). University of Kansas. M4T4: Response Paper #2. https://kuconnect.ku.edu/courses/1458/assignments/34121?

module_item_id=99337

museumofed. (2015, April 3). Maxine Greene in 1998: Imagination [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/c9pwAi8-bZE

Sullivan, P. (1966). John Dewey's Philosophy of Education. The High School Journal, 49(8) 391-397. https://youtu.be/c9pwAi8-bZE

Wiley, Magrini J. (2012). Existentialism, Phenomenology, and Education. Philosophy Scholarship. Paper 30.

http://dc.cod.edu/philosophypub/30 Web End.

This Image Is of a verb conjugation chart used for "Focus on Form" gramatical support for activity based curriculum.