Term of Award

Fall 2016

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (restricted to Georgia Southern)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading

Committee Chair

Marla Morris

Committee Member 1

John Weaver

Committee Member 2

Daniel Chapman

Committee Member 3

Brian Casemore

Abstract

What follows is my own curriculum studies autobiography that centers around the method of currere (Pinar, 1994, 2004, & 2012) wherein one examines one’s experience with curriculum, writ large—that is, within and without the school—in four movements or moments: regressive, analytic, progressive, synthetic. I use psychoanalysis as my theoretical through-line, while also exploring curriculum via anthropological and literary-interpretive lenses. This work is akin in many ways to the psychoanalytical process of individuation, and I also compare it with the vision quest or hero’s journey—but one that occurs within, subjectively, interiorly. I espouse the process of working through one’s own curriculum in this fashion which is parallel to what Wexler (1996) terms a re-sacralizing of the curriculum. I modify this slightly as a re-mythologizing of the curriculum as I add my own flavor to Wexler’s project. I treat autobiographical curricular aspects of my life including: interaction with literature and other media, disease, the relation of the individual to society and its imperatives, and religion. These aspects of my curriculum I have re-mythologized, reintegrated into one another while also reintegrating into psyche the feminine half, or anima, as well as the shadow, the id, the religious feeling, and the experience of the mythical—all commonly neglected aspects of psyche that when reintegrated make for a more integrated, organized, self-determining and creative individual. I champion the use of the autobiographical method of currere for other students of curriculum and I humbly submit this as my own very personal exploration of this method. This re-mythologizing of my autobiographical curriculum has enabled me to be more balanced, organized, and creative in my approach to understanding and coming up with solutions to two important, intertwined topics affecting children in schools today—bullying and school violence.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

Download

Share

COinS