Tossing Around Some Ideas

So for my curriculum studies class I've got a paper due on Thursday. Specifically, it's a 2-3 page critical synthesis of an article or issue. Sounds simple, right? Well, unfortunately, given my tendency to let my mind bounce out of orbit, this is not an easy task. See, I'm also taking a disability studies class right now, and it just so happens that the first book (well part of a book) that we read for class was actually related to disability studies curriculum in higher education. I told Dr. C about it and she said she thought it would be great for me to explore this topic and present it to the class since disability studies has not been a focus of her curriculum course before and thought it would be an interesting topic. I'm (of course) excited to do so because I love sharing new things with my classmates.

I thought I had a brilliant idea and told myself that I'd read the whole book (!) and do my paper on the book. Unfortunately, there is WAAAAAY too much covered in the text for me to present on it in class AND write a 2-3 page paper on it AND support my critique with class readings. Not gonna happen. So there was one particular chapter that jumped out at me, and luckily, that chapter has actually been published as an article in a journal, so I may use that for my focus.

The article/chapter is Simi Linton's Disability Studies/Not Disability Studies in which she does a pretty good job of defining the boundaries of what disability studies is and is not...or what should and shouldn't be considered disability studies in curriculum. She identifies 12 problems related to the dominant curriculum's presentation of disability and discusses what is needed in disability studies curriculum, given these 12 issues. She also offers four related rationales for delineating between disability studies and not disability studies. I think perhaps I'd focus on these four rationales.

Hrm. What would I have to do? Well, I'd have to give a background on disability studies: how I became interested in the topic, models of disability, person first language, etc. Then maybe talk about Linton's four rationales: 1) distinction of the term "disability studies" (vs. impairment), 2) disability studies as a minority group status and marker of identity, 3) comparing disability studies to the women's studies trajectory, and 4) who should teach and write in the field. Man, I have tons to say on these topics. I also still need to tie class readings into this paper.

Things I could draw upon:

*Stark & Lattuca Ch 3 - perspectives on content selection

*Tierney - power conflicts over knowledge & uncovering voices that aren't present

*Kreber Ch4 - understanding others through listening to your own voice and to others

*Kreber Ch7 - p. 76? 82-83

*Kreber Ch 9 - quantifiable areas of engagement within internationalization? real world democratic education? p.102

Maybe I can do this.

Education, Sustainability, New Skills, Capstone

On 9/30/2010 our curriculum class had a joint class with the campus environments class with guest speakers (Shanwa Travena & Krista Hiser) that discussed sustainability from the perspectives of both the physical environment and the curriculum. It was really a great class with two guest speakers talking about projects going on at UH Manoa, within the UH System, and out in the community.

Some topics discussed included sustainability across the curriculum, the triple bottom line (environmental, economic, and social change, a.k.a. people, planet and profits), sustainability in higher education, as well as an in class group activity. Something that Shawna brought up that really got me thinking (well, one of many things, at least) was the idea of new skills that will be necessary for a green workforce in green sustainability jobs. On thing Shawna mentioned was that we have been conditioned in our education to analyze - to take a problem or issue and break it down into pieces and think critically about it. A skill that is equally relevant but perhaps is not used quite as often is synthesis - putting information together and making sense of separate pieces. -If I'm not mistaken, this topic came up partially out of the discussion that environmental/sustainability studies needs to not only be it's own department, but needs to be integrated across the curriculum, in every subject.

This got me thinking about capstone projects, which I believe was one of the discussions we had in class about capstone projects in education - helping students to make sense of their education as not just a string of unrelated courses, but as cohesive and complementary. This then got me thinking about my own education here at UHM, and how I think every single course I've taken has complemented the others (both within and outside of my department), and this is something I absolutely love. There is not anything I have learned in one class that does not somehow help me in another, whether it's about research, student development, law, educational technology, multicultural issues, or disability studies. I recall reading in one of my undergraduate classes (cognitive psych?) that this is ideal, but it may be more difficult to learn in this manner because the information is so similar that your brain has a difficult time differentiating what was learned in one course from the others.

I'm thinking of the possibility of doing a one credit independent study next semester as a capstone experience to my education. Perhaps getting all my syllabi, my papers and projects, my texts together, and spending some time pondering my learning, write about it, blog about it, and maybe even present it to other students in the program (perhaps it may be particularly helpful for the new students in the program)............

Higher Ed Curriculum Thus Far...

When I started this blog back in January 2009, I blogged frequently, and covered almost all my readings for a class I was taking. It's been awhile since I've blogged with that frequency, but I have to say that nothing really helps you ponder and grapple with questions, as well as solidify your knowledge about something you've learned quite like reflection. I'm happy to say that though I haven't been blogging, I've had some time to reflect on readings in class through a journaling and sharing in class.

Not that I can make up for the semester thus far, I want to go over a few things I've thought about and have read for this class so far. First of all, I should say that the last time this course was offered, I think I said something along the lines of, "Curriculum? Phruuggh." When I talked to my advisor, Dr. E, about what classes I was interested in (back then), I think I said, "Anything but curriculum." Well, time went by, and I don't know what happened, but curriculum just sounded like it would be interesting...and it truly is!

What is Curriculum?

Our initial readings were a couple chapters of a Stark and Lattuca text (Defining Curriculum & Curricular Perspectives). The reading was somewhat dry (I fell asleep on it at one point), however, there was a good framework on the academic plan, and the role of the academic plan within the overall environmental context of an institution. This perspective represented the rational view of curriculum. The other readings we had along side these chapters were Kuh's "The Other Curriculum" (which I've read before), and Tierney's "Cultural Politics and the Curriculum." I enjoyed both the Kuh and Tierney articles.

Kuh's perspective is that the organizational framework of an institution is the curriculum, and that institutional type and ethos, as well as out of class learning (study abroad, work-study, student activities) are a large piece of college curriculum. Tierney offers a critical view of curriculum on the basis that knowledge, the interpretation of knowledge, as well as experience and social interchange are subjective. In the article Tierney compares a women's college to an entrepreneurial university - the women's college that is full of culture and cultural symbols, and competing views of knowledge and the other that seems to lack an ideology and lacks struggle.

Aside from providing different perspectives of curriculum, my biggest take-away from these readings was this quote from the Tierney article,

"Institutional curricula need to be investigated from the perspective of whose knowledge, history, language, and culture is under examination. Conversely, the organization's participants need to uncover those whose voices are not present in a curricular discourse and give life to them."

Why do I like this quote so much? Probably because as I am growing as a learner and educator, I am finding that voice and perspective (or lack thereof) is very important to me. Personally, I want to expand my perspective to include voices and perspectives of knowledge from as many people as possible. I want all this information to conflict. I want these perspectives to collide. I don't want black words on white paper written by white men. I want more than that.

A classmate of mine, Puni, whom I am so glad is in this class (we both read and analyze everything and come prepared to chew through knowledge together...I think we push each other in that way) said that when she is a professor she is going to tell her class about who she is, what her perspective is, and tell her class to think of the readings from their own perspective...does what they are reading conflict with what they know? Is it relevant? ...and bring their own perspective to the table.

We can't look at everything from all perspectives, but I think learners need to know their perspective is relevant, even if, especially if, it is different from what they are reading in class.