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From: Loren McGrail <lmcgrail@mindspring.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: [NIFL-ESL:5316] Re: how many curriculums can you count ? (a little lecturette, I'm a
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Dear friends,
Here are a few thoughts I have about the curriculum question this
morning. They come from spending many years in the field following one
curriculum approach or another and more recently from my own teaching
experience. They come from a re-awakend sense of what actually goes on
in any teaching/learning context. They are triggered by one of my
students wanting another student to take countless pictures of the two
of us standing together,of my student at the flip chart writing her
name, her posed helping another student with her assignment. They come
from a renewed sense of both how important this teaching English can
be and how emotionally rewarding and draining it is and that even
after all these years,it is still a mystery to me what actually
happens to all of us in the teaching/learning moment.
Somewhere between all of these curriculum approaches,there is
something which is both hidden and palpable that imbues these
approaches with the power to foster or thwart learning. It is related
to how we unconsciously or consciously teach the content. It's about
how we exercise our power,where our authority lies with respect to the
content and to the learners. It's about how the room is arranged,where
the teacher stands or sits, who gets to write on the board,who brings
or creates the texts,decides when something is learned or needs more
practice. It's as subtle as your tone of voice and as obvious as who
is doing most of the talking.
Earl Stevick,in his early years,talked often about this dimension of
teaching and learning,this relationship between the learners and the
teacher. I believe he wrote about it most deeply in an essay using the
metaphor of Dostovesky's Grand Inquistor. In the end, it's about
developing mutually respectful relationships and the learners claiming
their "authority" in their new language and culture.
Though perhaps not officially designated as curriculum, it is both the
glue that secures a particular curriculum approach or the liguid that
flows beneath or through it. It is both what is felt when you walk
into the room and when you leave.
In other words,presecribed curriculums can be as liberatory as
negotiated curriculums if what is flowing is a deep sense of respect
for the learners,their ability to learn, and the experience they bring
to the classroom. In a negotiated curriculum approach, you can easily
fall into dicatating what issues should be addressed instead of posing
issues to be explored. In other words, you can,in the name of
empowerment,impose your "problem posing".
I bring up these points because it is easy to sit in the judgement
seat and think some curriculum approaches are superior to others
without thinking about the larger teaching/learning relationship and
who we are or become.
Loren
Loren McGrail
lmcgrail@mindspring.com
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