Believe, Inspire, Create, Celebrate — Fields of play in education: be(com)ing curriculum within pedagogy of promise
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Date
2015
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University of New Brunswick
Abstract
The aim of this project is to present a reconceptualized perspective of the powers and technologies that play on educational beliefs, inspiration, creativity, and celebrations in schooled practices. I make a proposal for educator-learners to revisit their ethical responsibility to children, themselves, and education through thoughtful and playful opportunities in pedagogy of promise.
The school mission statement Believe, Inspire, Create, Celebrate guided a professional community of educator-learners as we honored children, designed spaces that inspired authentic learning activities, and nurtured an inclusive environment. My growing concern with universalizing discourses provoked a curiosity about the powers that determined teaching practices under these tenets, became contested as learning opportunities. I navigate between the contested spaces of my lived experiences within the classroom, and as a member on provincial/district committees, (re)searching connections between intended and actual effects of practices and policy. Are there common grounds, or is this a space in need of negotiation?
This project contains a review of reconceptualist literature, within the narrative wanderings drawn from my lived experience, as I explore intentions, interpretation, and identity that shape educational practice. I highlight promises from provincial curricula documents that support the tenets of emergent curriculum, as practiced through a Reggio Emilia approach.
As I attend to the complexities of complexing learning/curriculum/childhood, I remain open to rhizomatic possibilities that reframe meanings, interrogate views, and propose pedagogical practices that invite children into the learning process; as people with rights and authentic knowledge. The project invites readers to consider similar opportunities for be(com)ing curriculum with(in) reconceptualized beliefs as learner-researchers.