Conveying Outside Curriculum Through Teacher Education and Policy Reform

• In Event: Outside Curriculum—Necessary for Public Education: Dreaming Possibilities, Starting With China

Abstract

Continuing the emphasis on spreading the word about outside curriculum, the presenter is a professor from the US with background in educational policy, curriculum studies, literacy, and teacher education; moreover, he was part of the team that visited two of the Chinese universities represented here. Thus, he will pose questions of how to inspire interest in outside curriculum among pre-service and in-service teachers and how do encourage and enable policy formation and implementation. The presenter will illustrate how the value of learning about outside curricula can be communicated, inspired, and refined in other regions of the world, including the US. We emphasize its use in China due to the positive response on visits there. We contend that is an idea that could be fruitful to policy and practice in many regions of the world, depending on its adaptation. The presenter will draw upon scholarship that speaks to needs to integrate curriculum studies and teacher education and theories of belonging by diverse groups who participate in creation of outside curricula.

The presenter will consider questions such as: Do categories referred to as curriculum venues, such as intended, taught, experienced, embodied, hidden, tested, and null curriculum (Schubert, 2008, pp. 407-412) enable better understanding of dimensions of outside curriculum? Do any other categories from the curriculum literature help to clarify ways in which outside curriculum influences student perspective? What modes expression about outside curriculum match with topics used to characterize school curriculum, such that aspects of school and outside curricula might be readily compared? Are ways of conceptualizing school and outside curricula compatible or do they conflict? What are implications of this conflict or compatibility in terms of determining what is worthwhile for students, why it is worthwhile, and how, where, and when to experience, learn, or achieve it? Such questions will be discussed among panelists as led by the chair/discussant, and then the session will be opened to audience commentary and discussion.

Author

• Christopher B. Crowley, Wayne State University