A Journeyman Professor's Walk through Metaphor, Philosophy, and Currere in Search of a Holistic Teacher Education Curriculum

Abstract

The Afghan/Persian poet Rumi said, “if you are here unfaithfully with us/you’re causing terrible damage” (1989, p. 56). I have been involved with teacher education programmes at a vocational, undergraduate, and postgraduate level for around eighteen years, both in Canada and Australia. Education is often used by governments as a seemingly pragmatic way to solve familial, societal, and cultural problems; and yet such pragmatic responses fail to take into account the “internal aspect[s] of human existence” (Null, 2011, p. 147).

Empirical evidence gathered from both my undergraduate[1] and postgraduate[2] teacher education students over the last seven years suggests that existentialist, progressive, and to a lesser degree reconstructionist[3] tendencies drive teacher education students. This is not a huge surprise given the tendency of teachers to self-identify as ‘learner centered’. However, if the ‘internal aspects’ of those students are ignored, and the complex problems of the contexts they are embedded in are similarly ignored then how can they attend to the ‘internal aspects’ of their own students?

Using an approach rooted in metaphor, philosophy, and currere (Pinar, 2012), this project will explore a holistic approach to both the development of a teacher education curriculum and to the curriculum itself.

This project is just getting underway and I’d like to engage in conversation around using currere in both the development of the curriculum but also as a core of the teacher education curriculum.

Leahy, R. (2009). Authentic educating. Lanham, Maryland: University press of America, Inc.

Null, W. J. (2011). Curriculum: From theory to practice. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Pinar, W. F. (2012). What is curriculum theory? (2nd ed.). Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge.

Rumi. (1989). Forget your life. In S. Mitchell (Ed.), The enlightened heart (pp. 56). New York, New York: HarperCollins.

[1] 5-year combined Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education programmes.

[2] 2-Year Bachelor of Education, Master of Education & Master of Teaching programmes.

[3] As described by Dr. Robert Leahy’s ‘Education Philosophy Inventory’ http://www.authenticeducating.com/education-philosophy-inventory/ (Leahy, 2009)

Presentation Description

Using an approach rooted in metaphor, philosophy, and currere (Pinar, 2012), this project will explore a holistic approach to both the development of a teacher education curriculum and to the curriculum itself. This project is in progress and I’d like to engage in conversation around using currere in both the development of the curriculum but also as a core of the teacher education curriculum.

Keywords

Currere, Holistic, Curriculum development

Location

Forsyth

Publication Type and Release Option

Presentation (Open Access)

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Jun 10th, 2:15 PM Jun 10th, 3:30 PM

A Journeyman Professor's Walk through Metaphor, Philosophy, and Currere in Search of a Holistic Teacher Education Curriculum

Forsyth

The Afghan/Persian poet Rumi said, “if you are here unfaithfully with us/you’re causing terrible damage” (1989, p. 56). I have been involved with teacher education programmes at a vocational, undergraduate, and postgraduate level for around eighteen years, both in Canada and Australia. Education is often used by governments as a seemingly pragmatic way to solve familial, societal, and cultural problems; and yet such pragmatic responses fail to take into account the “internal aspect[s] of human existence” (Null, 2011, p. 147).

Empirical evidence gathered from both my undergraduate[1] and postgraduate[2] teacher education students over the last seven years suggests that existentialist, progressive, and to a lesser degree reconstructionist[3] tendencies drive teacher education students. This is not a huge surprise given the tendency of teachers to self-identify as ‘learner centered’. However, if the ‘internal aspects’ of those students are ignored, and the complex problems of the contexts they are embedded in are similarly ignored then how can they attend to the ‘internal aspects’ of their own students?

Using an approach rooted in metaphor, philosophy, and currere (Pinar, 2012), this project will explore a holistic approach to both the development of a teacher education curriculum and to the curriculum itself.

This project is just getting underway and I’d like to engage in conversation around using currere in both the development of the curriculum but also as a core of the teacher education curriculum.

Leahy, R. (2009). Authentic educating. Lanham, Maryland: University press of America, Inc.

Null, W. J. (2011). Curriculum: From theory to practice. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Pinar, W. F. (2012). What is curriculum theory? (2nd ed.). Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge.

Rumi. (1989). Forget your life. In S. Mitchell (Ed.), The enlightened heart (pp. 56). New York, New York: HarperCollins.

[1] 5-year combined Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education programmes.

[2] 2-Year Bachelor of Education, Master of Education & Master of Teaching programmes.

[3] As described by Dr. Robert Leahy’s ‘Education Philosophy Inventory’ http://www.authenticeducating.com/education-philosophy-inventory/ (Leahy, 2009)