Mr. Hood's Learning Journey

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Category: edci532

Image shows a bar at night with the lights on and no patrons

How my Metaphor has Changed in Relation to Curriculum Discourse, Development, and Documentation

July 28, 2020 / / 0 Comments

“Effenaar Bar” by allert is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

My original metaphor for curriculum gives the presence of the machinery of learning, such as the bar itself being a chain of bars throughout the country representing the same basic concept replicated over and over again. However, my metaphor has become more complex because I noticed Ted Aoki and Ralph Tyler sitting at the bar and had a conversation with them.

Now the new version:

To me curriculum is a game of darts in the bar, where success is not always hitting the dartboard but with the game itself.

Aoki would tell us that curriculum shouldn’t always be planned but also be lived (1993). If one paid close enough attention you would notice the dart hit the poster next to the dart board that showed Jasper National Park. Although the learners are still playing darts, the conversation about the park, how bird feather was found, and how it looks similar but different to the feathered fins on the dart has already added personal meaning and depth to the game. I always enjoyed having these conversations with students that would take me away from the dart board, but never thought of how important those moments are, and how they are described as “the lived curriculum” by Aoki. I feel more comfortable in giving students time to explore the lived curriculum, and have the ammunition in applying a theoretical framework in justifying my actions.

I also find Ralph Tyler sitting at the bar. Who knew he was the one who gave the basic blueprints as to how the bar could be run as efficiently as possible! However, the blueprints are quite general, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that a bar has to be built to play darts, or that darts has to be the game. I feel Tyler’s principles on curriculum development and instruction (1949) are a logical set of principles that can be universally understood. However, this is my own anthropocentric view, and must understand that I am a product of the system itself, and my thoughts on curriculum, and my thoughts on how I process information are distinctly of Tyler’s doing.

Reflecting upon the poster of lacrosse on the wall, I realize that post-humanism may have a place in education and that of decolonizing education. The movement of post-humanism is overall a challenging process for me to understand, as I don’t have an anchor to start from. Being a human, it is natural to make connections from myself to everything around me. However, from my interpretation those connections are ones that have already been explored by First Nations people throughout the globe, who interpret their world with an alternative perspective and have thought less of humans that conquer all and more to the inter-connectedness between all matter in space surrounding them. For Aoki, this lens is already part of the lived curriculum, and the story itself, even in a post-humanist perspective, is part of the curriculum. Considering post-humanism in curriculum, I think the first step in self reflection is how little I know of the subject, and how moving forward with post-humanism is itself a big (D)iscourse in curriculum.

Going back to the game of darts we notice lots of commotion in the room. Everyone is standing two meters apart with the bartenders, servers and bouncers all talking about the dart video game. The bar has lost all of its patrons, as everyone either connected synchronously or asynchronously with the game through this bar. 

Here emerges Marshall McLuhan (1988), and he asks us to question the dart video game as to what it enhances for the players, what does the game make obsolete that was there before when the players were in the bar, how does the game retrieve skills that were taught  or lost before, and what will happen if players just stick to playing the dart video game without ever stepping foot back into the bar? No one could answer McLuhan’s questions, as the online environment had hastily been put into place. In addition, all the servers are trying to teach the video game remotely and the bouncers are continuously putting new rules on which console to use. As well, the servers are telling the players that certain buttons can’t be pressed on their controllers at home and are asking players to put tape of them as prescribed by the bouncers. 

Just then, Vgotsky just walks into the room. His footsteps shake the wooden planks that vibrate throughout the building. Vgotsky takes a look around and only sees bartenders, servers, and bouncers. He asks how can you run a bar when all of your patrons are playing video games online and aren’t talking to each other? How are they going to become better players when they have no one to practice with? Vgotsky explains that students build their cognitive development from their social interactions (1978).

From the chaos one thing is clear, a loss of human connection between each other and a need in setting up guidelines and expectations for learner-to-learner communication. Over the last three weeks I have been talking to the patrons in the bar and reading the books which have been past down. Maybe the bar will be filled in September, but in the meantime it is better to be proactive and make a change if we are back to dartboard video games.

 

References:

Aoki, T. T. (1993). Legitimating lived curriculum: Towards a curricular landscape of  multiplicity. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 8(3), 255-268.

McLuhan, Marshall and Eric McLuhan. 1988. Laws of Media: The New Science. University of Toronto Press.

Moore, M. G. (1989). Three types of interaction. The American Journal of Distance Education, 3(2), 1-6.

University of Chicago, & Tyler, R. W. (1949). Basic principles of curriculum and instruction: Syllabus for education 305.

Vygotsky, L., & Cole, M. (1978). Mind in society. Harvard University Press.

 

The Challenge for Youth in Indonesia

July 25, 2020 / / 0 Comments
Balinese Barong Dancer

Traditional Balinese dancer in costume wearing a mask to ward off evil spirits.

“Balinese Barong Dancer” by Hoks is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

In the news we see varying degrees of responses towards schools reopening with the current COVID-19 pandemic. Many of our thoughts are aligned towards how the re-opening of schools is going to take place, as it is the centralized space for learning in our community. However, the reality is many youth in the world don’t have a mandated right to attend public school especially when living in poverty.

Full article from video here

 

For homeless youth in Indonesia, the priorities are food, shelter, and a safe place to sleep. Social distancing and fears of contracting Covid-19 are the least of these young people’s concern.

Children with supportive families in Indonesia don’t have the same social net as we have in Canada. We have been very fortunate that Canadian citizens are able to receive $2000 per month in social assistance through the CERB program in supporting their families in facing the reality of job losses.

With in-laws living in Bali, Indonesia, they have shared with me the realities of life under the strain of Covid-19. There are no hand-outs from the government, and people with contracts working for the government  have gone through a reduction in wages. At one point no wages were received for two months due to office closures, although employees were expected to still volunteer their time, for  the sake of job security, helping to disinfect public areas. Bali is a densely populated island that heavily relies on the tourist industry for over half of their revenue. Schools on the island are either private or public, with the difference of private schools costing more and public schools costing less. Education is not free. When parents lose their income or have it reduced, it increases the risk of food and health security for children.

Elementary schools in Bali have not re-opened. Teachers use their phones to text students assigned work with expectations that parents provide the support. Students receive participation marks, but no assessment on the learning outcomes takes place. My eight year old niece last week received thirty-five math questions for homework but only did three. I think it is challenging for parents to get students to engage who have been socially and mentally disconnected from school for a few months now.

The Balinese provincial government has a tentative plan to re-open the borders for international  tourists September 11th. The hope is to bring life back to the economy. It is an uneasy balance between supporting the livelihood of the community and increasing the risk of Covid-19 with no easy answer.

 

Reflection of the Planned and Lived Curriculum

July 19, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Children Fishing into Reflections-1=“Children Fishing into Reflections-1=” by Sheba_Also 17,000,000 + views is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

I found Sarah Olsen’s summary of  Aoki’s work on the planned and lived curriculum very familiar in terms of my teaching practices, but also supportive in emphasizing the importance of the lived curriculum.

In elementary schools, it is easier to draw into the lived curriculum of students and facilitate their stories. Having the same group of students for ten months allows the educator to grow the collective bond and celebrate the diversity of learners. Teaching at grade five and six split class, the opportunity to communicate in talking circles where the curriculum becomes more personalized and flexible in responding to the “now”, and the teacher can pass between curriculum topics with an interweaving of student led interests, stories, and muses is within itself the lived curriculum.

 

This is not to say high school teachers can’t respond to the support of bringing the lived curriculum into their classrooms. However, there is more tension in the planned and lived curriculum, where specific content learning objectives are foundational pieces for students to understand more complex ideas as they move through the planned curriculum. It is in this realm where you find master educators balancing the lived experience of learning in the class and connecting it to learners with their analogies, storytelling, and giving the platform for learners to voice their experiences. Travis Fachs gives incite on his own practices with using artifacts in the classroom to provoke the lived curriculum.

In our current environment, we need to think back to Aoki’s thoughts on the lived curriculum and teaching in a blended or online environment by giving students their voices. We need students to have the opportunities to talk with each other, share their experiences, and allow teachers to respond to those voices and give guidance towards their interests. We have an amazing opportunity to facilitate pedagogy in a new way as opposed to the traditional in-classroom instruction by unlocking online learning tools for students. Online classrooms shouldn’t look like live video lectures that are teacher centered with students listening to content and not having the opportunity to engage or feel disconnected. Online or blended classrooms need to promote collaboration between learners by allowing the freedom to communicate between each other in small groups that would naturally occur in the classroom. Allow students to have their video cameras on and let them talk. Having policies in place to create the online lived curriculum allows the learner to engage, socially, emotionally, and personally.

 

A Metaphor of Curriculum

July 10, 2020 / / 3 Comments

 

You missed“You missed” by Mike Burns is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

To me curriculum is a game of darts in a bar. The dartboard stands for the learning outcomes an institution has designated that learners must hit, and the bar is the institution that holds all the facets of the how curriculum is directly and indirectly taught. The darts are thrown by the player (the learner), with younger players standing much closer to the dartboard and older ones standing further away. We find players of the same age in groups throwing darts while supporting each other’s play and engaging in conversation. Each individual carries in their own set of darts when entering the bar. Some players have an edge with darts that have been passed down from parents, who already had success playing the game, and went on to become masters in other games based on darts. Some of the players don’t have those well used darts, and are quite new to the game finding it an uphill battle. In the past, some of the players in the bar had generations of family members who were experts at playing a game that had nothing to do with dartboards, bars, or darts, but instead played a game called lacrosse (first nation’s way of knowing and learning).  Lacrosse created challenges because it couldn’t be facilitated in the restrictions of a building. Presently, everyone plays darts here with a new video game edition where you can also play online. In the bar you have servers (teachers) who direct the game, bartenders who you can get advice from (counselors), and the bouncers (administration) that run the game consistently for ten months out of the year, but decide to close in the summer. Recently the bar has found that not everyone likes to play darts, and has created compromises by bringing in a pool table. On one of the walls there is a poster of lacrosse. People talk about the game, but overall many have forgotten how to play.

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