Lessons From the Field: Reimaging Project-Based Learning for Diverse Classrooms

• In Event: 43.080 - Sheraton Roundtable Six - Osgoode Ballroom
  In Roundtable Session: 43.080-7 - Knowledge in Tension: Dissident Experiences in Relation

Abstract

In recent decades, the K-12 student population has grown increasingly diverse, with teachers and teacher educators struggling to keep up with technological, linguistic and cultural shifts. Drawing on a four-year curricular project, where teachers and researchers are working together to co-design a year-long 9th grade Project Based Learning (PBL) language arts course, we examine whether teachers’ adaptation of PBL curriculum has the potential to support their enactment of cultural humility, and a re-conceptualization of education and learning for an ever-changing world. Through this study, we view curriculum as a force in the construction of practice with in-service teachers actively interpreting and engaging with curricular resources. Further, we argue that reflexivity and humility are prerequisites when designing student-centered curriculum.

Authors

• Mary Rose Kelly, Marist College

• Rebecca Flores, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Alison Gould Boardman, University of Colorado - Boulder