A Critical Pedagogy of Curriculum asPlace

1. A Critical Pedagogy of Curriculum asPlace Dr. Carol Fulton University of Regina

2. A Convergence of Three Lenses

3. Views of Curriculum • Overt, explicit, or written curriculum • Hidden or covert curriculum • Null curriculum • Societal curriculum • Phantom curriculum • Curriculum in Use • Received curriculum • Internal curriculum • Electronic curriculum

4. Some Understandings • Everything is connected • We shape and are shaped by the places we inhabit • We are part of nested systems; our actions in one system have consequences in other systems • Understanding our relationship to spaces and places may help to develop an eco-consciousness • Social justice and eco-justice are inextricably linked

5. Examining Curriculum Through a New Lens – Critical Pedagogy and Curriculum as Place • It is time we examined curriculum within the interconnected web of social, cultural, political, and ecological contexts in which we teach and learn. (Judson, 2006)

6. We Occupy Many Spaces and Places as Part of Complex Sustems • Among the complex systems that are of interest to educators are the human individual, classroom/school collectives, communities and cultural systems

7. Spaces and Places – Social Constructs • Place emerges from the construct of space, as space endowed with meanings” (Judson, 2006) • “where one knows others and is known to others" (Relph (2000, p. 27). • Places represent sources of security and identity for individuals and for groups. • Place contributes to individual and collective identity formation insofar as individuals identify with places and, in turn, places reciprocally identify individuals. (Judson, 2006) • Space refers to a physical context such as building, park, room, etc. • Spaces are dynamic and changing because of the interactions that take place there and the meanings people attribute to the spaces

8. Place-Based Education • Immerses students in local heritage, culture, ecology, landscapes, opportunities, and experiences as a foundation for the study of language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, and other subjects. • Encourages teachers and students to use the schoolyard, community, public lands, and other special places as resources, turning communities into classrooms. • Is project-focused and inherently tailored by local people to local realities, place-based education is equally relevant in small towns and big cities • Is equally effective for kindergarteners and high school students. http://www.peecworks.org/PEEC/Benefits_of_PBE-PEEC_2008_web.pdf

9. Developing an Eco-literacy According to Sobel • “what’s important is that children have an opportunity to bond with the natural world, to learn to love it, before being asked to heal its wounds” (1996, p. 10).

10. Place-Based Educators • Believe that introducing political perspectives at wrong time can create anxiety, fear, and hopelessness in learners that makes them less capable of taking socially or ecologically appropriate action. • Not as oppositional or “messianic” (Bowers, 2001) as critical pedagogy • Just as devoted to social change • Try to foster eco-literacy and have children develop a relationship with nature

11. Is it Enough to Bring About Transformation? Some argue that we need both critical pedagogy and place-based education to understand how the “isms” (racism, classism, anthropocentrism, etc.) are related to dominance and power. We need both decolonization and re-inhabitation.

12. Critical Pedagogy • Whose interests are being served? • Who has power and privilege? • Who is left out/marginalized? • How has power, politics, history and culture shaped education? “Place + people = politics.”—Williams (2001, p. 3)

13. Critical Place-Based Pedagies [Critical] Place-based pedagogies are needed so that the education of citizens might have some direct bearing on the well-being of the social and ecological places people actually inhabit. (Guenewald, 2003)

14. Critical Place-Based Education – Two Goals (Eco-Justice) Re-inhabitation • “learning to live-in-place in an area that has been disrupted and injured through past exploitation” (Berg & Dassman, 1990p. 35). • “The study of place . . . has a significance in re-educating people in the art of living well where they are” (Orr, 1990p. 130) Decolonization • “a metaphor for the process of recognizing and dislodging dominant ideas, assumptions and ideologies as externally imposed” ( Smith & Katz, 1993, p. 71). • “a process of cultural and historical liberation; an act of confrontation with a dominant system of thought” (hooks, 1992, p. 1).

15. Guenewald (2003, p. 9) states: In other words, reinhabitation and decolonization depend on each other. A critical pedagogy of place aims to (a) identify, recover, and create material spaces and places that teach us how to live well in our total environments (reinhabitation); and (b) identify and change ways of thinking that injure and exploit other people and places (decolonization).

16. What is Eco-Justice? Chet Bowers (2001) suggests Eco-justice has four main focuses: (a) understanding the relationships between ecological and cultural systems, specifically, between the domination of nature and the domination of oppressed groups; (b) addressing environmental racism, including the geographical dimension of social injustice and environmental pollution; (c) revitalizing the non-commodified traditions of different racial and ethnic groups and communities, especially those traditions that support ecological sustainability; and (d) re-conceiving and adapting our lifestyles in ways that will not jeopardize the environment for future generations

17. But How? This is a relatively new area of research, and people have different priorities. It challenges all of us to think differently because schools have typically taught us to live in a competitive society that emphasizes economic growth at the expense of all else.

18. Start From What Students Know • What are the places they know best? • Where do they feel safe, accepted, secure? Why? • Where do they feel insecure, helpless, marginalized? Why? • Who and what are in spaces and places that have meaning for them? • What can be done to improve a space to make it a better place?

19. Sobel Suggests • Foster empathy for the familiar • Move out toward exploration of the home range • Move on to social action and reinhabitation.

20. Place-Making: A Democratic Process Spaces and places are pedagogical, social, and political constructions that are powered and contested. Schools have a responsibility to make individuals conscious of the interplay between humans and their lived spaces and how we are all actively engaged in making the places that influence our lives. Place-making is a democratic process. (Judson, 2006)

21. We Can’t Focus on or Change All The Systems • Changes in one system can bring about changes in another. • What changes can you make within your spheres of influence? • But we can work within our spheres of influence. • We can build community and work collectively to bring about change.

22. An Issue School curricula have generally failed to communicate a sense of urgency regarding social, economic, or cultural issues, let alone to ever-increasing environmental degradation and global climate change. (Nelson, 2010)

23. A Question • What role should schools and the accompanying curricula have on the consideration of urgent impending social and environmental crises?(Nelson, 2010)

24. Suzuki Speaks • Answer the following question: • In what ways did the film relate to the lecture on curriculum, place-based education, and critical theory As you view the film jot down notes where you were: • In agreement • In disagreement • Surprised • Intrigued • Angry • Touched

25. References • Gruenewald, D. (2003). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32 (4), pp. 3–12 • Judson, G. (2006). Curriculum spaces: Situating educational research, theory and practice. The Journal of Educational Thought, 40(3), pp. 229-245. • Nelson, T. (2010). Fill this in at home. • Sobel, D. (1996). Beyond ecophobia: Reclaiming the heart in nature education. • Great Barrington, MA: The Orion Society and The Myrin Institute.