Outside Curriculum in Extracurricular Academic Activities

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

Abstract

The two presenters in the session will reflect on their experience of working with teachers and consulting with schools and communities in Wuhan, a large city in Central China. For them, images of outside curriculum conjured up the widespread practice of student engagement in extracurricular study through specialized classes that provide more background to enhance test scores, grade point averages, college entrance possibilities, and future occupational preparation. They also thought of enrichment activities such as sports, arts, theatre, music, and related cultural activities. Sometimes they identified field trips or excursions to other parts of the country or to other countries.

Of course, these examples of outside curriculum could be considered outside curricula, and the presenters will consider the extent to which the purposes of such activities match those of the schools. They are mainly concerned that those extracurricular specialized or supplementary classes become so commodified that children from new urban poor or lower social economic classes are left further behind in terms of school curriculum. Questions arise, too about the extent to which students see the activities as contributory to perspectives on the world that they deem worthwhile, the kinds of lives they would like to lead, and the self-education that they will continue to pursue. Questions also arise about the deeper curricular assumptions revealed by choices to pursue such activities. For instance, are they selected because they deeply value (as purposes, if you will) the commodity-oriented society that Dewey (1933) critiqued as acquisitive and detrimental to education for personal growth and for learning to live together in the world? Are major corporate states so engrained as acquisitive societies that learning to be more fully competitive and acquisitive is the only option?

Authors

• Wei Gao, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China

• Youqing Chen, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China

• QIMING MAO, Central China Normal University