Post-Class Discussion 6 - August 2, 2018

Our group, Team Do and Learn, did and learned a lot about each other and

ourselves in the few days leading up to the day of presentation on Educating Through

Occupations (ETO). As we all juggled our own timelines and deadlines, we worked

together to collect our efforts and complete the curriculum culture project. When we

could meet, we met on weekends. Those who could not present, phoned in.

The warm-up activity “Skyscrapers” was fairly well-received, given that many

students entered class late, by when the instructions were displaced on the screen.

Those who were already at the activity on the tables took the liberty to catch up

tablemates and include them into the exercise. The logic-based strategy activity

attracted enough students and inspired the groups enough that some people started

asking if I had some more. Of course, I have learned about preparing for such

circumstances, and I had a few extensions at hand. Although I had no initial thought to

tie this activity to the curriculum culture, something I realized after someone asked

about it. Reflecting about that moment later in the day, I resented not planning the

activity to also demonstrate a characteristic of ETO. I was glad, nevertheless, that the

exercise generated some enthusiasm in the students.

We chose to connect our demonstration to the curriculum culture through an

activity that expressed core visions, goals that distinguished ETO from other curriculum

cultures: Contribution to democracy : unity of curriculum, development of whole

persons; education of equal opportunity and sympathetic understanding of other

people’s lives and work across social classes and backgrounds, and the development of

understanding of work within society (Joseph 2011, p.127). Students were tasked with
making a website to attract tourists to a province and city of their interest. In the

process, the facilitators had to ensure students would have sufficient knowledge and

support to explore their interests and display them through a productive task. The

academic content taught was to be integrated with the intended task that would help

students “step into the shoes” of professional web developers. Web development

makes use of important qualities that also lead of creative critical thinkers. Students

were informed about responsible research and genuine expressions of creativity. It was

encouraging enough to know that many people had prior experience and knowledge on

creating websites, which opened the possibility of peer support and collaboration

between students.

Our group interpreted the subject and attractions chosen by an individual as their

self-expression and personalization. Their participation in the activity was believed to be

inspired by self-fulfillment, primarily because we did not indicate any intent to grade the

websites. If their websites could be used by a local tourism agency, then their projects

would be contributions to the community. We hoped to give our colleagues a glimpse

into the occupational lives of web developers. What I learned from this class was that a

task, job, or occupation does not need to be done after identify an interest. Many jobs

are often done to discover self and spirit, which can then be furnished and honed

through further experience in the field. Curriculum should not be designed to only slot

people into particular jobs. Vocational knowledge can nurture an individual’s pursuit of

self-fulfillment and self-development if it inspires growth in academic learning, core skills

and holistic competencies. Rather than teaching students about the “real world” or the
world “outside school”, curriculum cultures like ETO can foster an integration of learning

that happens “inside” the school with growth that occurs “outside” the school.

Outside the project’s expectations, our group (especially Nima) was hoping that

our colleagues would find this “crash course” informative as a starting point for use in

their own practices, whichever future they were shaping for themselves. We were

delighted when Bal openly expressed her willingness to use the knowledge gained this

class for future instruction, an encouraging sign for us. Where this practical knowledge

is beneficial for teachers to create a cohesive platform for students, the technology is

always changing, so end users will constantly update and modify their methods if they

possess the desire to communicate with their target audience in a relevant way.

This course has provided me with numerous learning opportunities and chances

to interpret curriculum in many different ways. Educators and researchers identified

learning styles and learners’ needs in different ways, dependent on time and place in

history, socio-economic and political environments, and understanding of pedagogy.

Researchers like Schiro and Joseph identified a number of different philosophies,

ideologies and cultures of curriculum; but I believe that this number is growing and will

continue to diversify as the needs change. For example, where the need for obedient

workers may have driven industrial societies to develop schooling methods based on

social efficiency ideologies, other communities whose need for existence and survival

were satisfied may have wanted to pursue creativity, arts and technology. Such

environments may be influenced by education philosophies reaching the stars. Joseph

describes multiple curricular cultures observed in practice, but she doesn’t adhere to

any particular one. Likewise, I presume it’s safe to assume that every individual who
reads the different curricular cultures and ideologies gives weight to different

characteristics in different proportions. This way, everyone thinks about curriculum

differently. I appreciated the opportunity to think so deeply about curriculum in the

classroom since it will help me consider all the ways my students’ needs can be met, so

that they may discover and develop their self and spirit while contributing to society and

growing in all aspects of life.

Source:
Joseph, P. B. (2011). Cultures of Curriculum. Routledge.