Curriculum Perspectives That Illuminate Human Possibilities, Spiritual Connections, and Social Activism

• In Event: 67.038 - Light in Curriculum Studies: Reflections on William Schubert's Five Decades of Curriculum Theorizing and Praxis

Abstract

The presenters draw on multimodal narratives that reveal the need to perceive curriculum as a lifelong quest for what is worthwhile, a need that is advocated in all of Schubert’s writings. This involves intellectual, physical, affective, social, and spiritual dimensions of life, including historical archetypes, which can be revealed through literary, counseling, and psychoanalytic lenses. Teachers, students, university faculty members, and activists compose their lives as they continue this lifelong quest with others. Presenters will share examples from teaching curriculum studies, educational foundations, social studies for elementary school teacher preparation, and from dealing with issues through departmental leadership (Schubert, 1982; Schubert, 2009b; He, Schultz, & Schubert, 2015)

This presentation and dialogue with other presenters will draw upon the following background illustrated with anecdotes:

Schubert’s scholarship, teaching, and service focus on curriculum theory, history, and development, especially the place of teachers, learners, and non-school educators in progressive versions of these endeavors. He has presented approximately 300 papers and symposia at scholarly conferences and related events. Many of his lectures, classes, and articles are characterized by use of role-play, dialogue, multilogue, and other creative forms. Schubert was the Consulting Editor of The Sage Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies (Kridel, Sage, 2010), and Part Editor of The Sage Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction (Connelly, He, & Phillion, 2008), which received the Outstanding Book Award from the Curriculum Studies Division of AERA in 2009. His Curriculum: Perspective, Paradigm, and Possibility (1986/97) is recognized as the most influential curriculum text from 1970 to 1990, by a poll of Professors of Curriculum (Behar, 1994), and his Curriculum Books (Schubert & Lopez Schubert, 1980; Schubert, Lopez Schubert, Thomas, & Carroll, 2002) is considered a major bibliography reference work in the curriculum field. His Reflections from the Heart of Educational Inquiry (Willis & Schubert, 1991/2000) received the Critic’s Choice Award from the American Educational Studies Association, and his The American Curriculum (Willis, Schubert, Bullough, Kridel, & Holton, 1993) was recognized as an Outstanding Academic Book by Choice, a prominent library journal. His contributions to Turning Points in Curriculum (Marshall, Sears, Schubert, 2000 & Marshall, Sears, Allen, Roberts, & Schubert, 2007) provide a postmodern history of the recent curriculum field during the last half of the 20th Century, while his Teacher Lore (Schubert & Ayers, 1992/1999) acknowledges the credibility of teachers as having perspectives worthy of study. His Sage Guide to Curriculum in Education (He, Schultz, & Schubert, 2015) won the 2016 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award and the 2016 AESA Critics Choice Award.

Authors

• Isabel Nunez, Purdue University Fort Wayne

• D. Joe Ohlinger, Purdue University - Fort Wayne