Rethinking Classroom Power Dynamics through Curriculum Negotiation

• In Event: Critical Collaborative Inquiry as Repair and Renewal: Teachers and Teacher Educators Co-Constructing Justice-Centered Education

Abstract

As a new teacher, I was curious about whether I could disrupt the power dynamics I had experienced as a student. I wanted to figure out if my classroom could become a space of true collaboration between teachers and students. This desire led me to the concept of curriculum negotiation, a concept whereby course content and learning strategies are co-created with students. Through a year-long practitioner inquiry project, I sought to answer the question: “How can I create a classroom where all students can negotiate their needs as learners?”

I utilized frameworks and strategies from Breen & Littlejohn (2000), Boomer & Cook (2005), and Rogoff (1994), among others, to craft a classroom experience centered on curriculum negotiation. I conducted my inquiry project primarily with a high-level elective class about artificial intelligence and computational creativity, but I also worked components of negotiation into the other classes I was teaching during the year.

I identified the impact of curriculum negotiation by examining many kinds of data: student work, student journals, and student focus groups; third-party observation notes; and my own personal written reflections. My data analysis culminated in three key findings: (1) curriculum negotiation encouraged students to view their peers as valid sources of knowledge and themselves as teachers; (2) curriculum negotiation radically reconfigured power in the classroom, allowing my students to surprise me; and (3) curriculum negotiation blurred the boundaries between “class” and “real life.”

Ultimately, I found that curriculum negotiation in a high school classroom is not only possible, but leads to deeper engagement. The success I found with this method has made me wonder about its applicability beyond the classroom. If power sharing can happen in a high school classroom, could it also happen on larger institutional scales? What would it look like for a department's budget, or school's mission, or employee responsibilities to be negotiated in a similar way?

Author

• Lee Beckwith, Miss Porter's School