Sustaining Curriculum Systems: What Practitioners Identify as Essential Components in Sustaining a System of Curriculum

• In Event: Roundtable Session 75
  In Roundtable Session: Systems Thinking as a Driver for Designing 21st-Century Curriculum and Instruction

Abstract

This paper is based on a qualitative study conducted with three semi-rural districts in the Midwest. The study is based on focus group text in regards to the sustaining of curriculum systems. The results indicate a relationship between the sustaining of educational curriculum systems and systems within nature. The axioms of biomes correlate to the sustainability of curriculum systems. Twelve themes/components of systems are identified which fall into four overarching concepts including curriculum systems as biomes, sustainability as interrelationships and weighted components, cultures of trust and teacher knowledge. The significance of the study reflects how important to systems thinking in education is the understanding of sustainability.

Author

• Elaine Makas, University of Michigan - Flint