My Teaching Context

I am a technology education teacher who currently teaches woodwork and drafting at Edward Milne Community School, a high school in Sooke, British Columbia. I teach classes from grades 9 to 12. I base my class lessons and projects on the BC curriculum for applied design, skills, & technology. More specifically I use the Woodwork 10-12 and Drafting 10-12 curricula. From there I have found a variety of resources both online and in books which help my students and I build upon the government’s prescribed curriculum. As technology education is focused on project based and hands-on learning, there is a lot of room for students to meet the objectives laid out by the curriculum while doing it in ways that appeal to them on a personal level and explore avenues of learning that the curriculum may not necessarily focus on but are of equal or similar importance to growing life skills and experience.

What is Curriculum?

To define curriculum, I came across a definition that stated that it is a “floor plan” or blueprint for what is taught, learned, and experienced in the classroom (Su, 2012). Being a carpenter and woodworking & drafting teacher, I was drawn to the statement, but after a time of reflection I realized how incorrect I feel this definition is in my approach to education.

To me, curriculum is more like the building code. Both lay out the minimum requirements needed, and everyone is mandated to follow them, but it is the designer/architect’s job to create the true outcome. Like the building code, curriculum is made by numerous entities input. These entities range from government, teachers, higher education, parents, industry, etc. They push and pull until there is an agreed upon minimal standard created.

Curriculum in Practice

It is important, as Blades (1997) asserts, to not forget students in the discourse of curriculum making. With all the entities pushing and pulling to get their curriculum in, I believe it is up to the teacher to make room for the student in the learning process. That is why I try my best to give my students opportunities to bring their personal interests and sensibilities into their projects. Essentially, I bring them on as designers/architects in their own education. I find this generally gains greater interest and investment in learning from the student and is more fun for everyone (as learning should be).

It is my belief that the curriculum is the minimum standard of what needs to be taught but how it is taught is generally up to the teacher. So, when Egan (1978) asserts that when approaching curriculum and its implementation we need to have a more balanced focus on how it will be implemented as to what needs to be implemented, I don’t necessarily disagree. I, as a teacher, have the autonomy to teach in my way, it is my job to focus on how the curriculum is delivered. I may subscribe to one method of teaching while another teacher subscribes to another and there is nothing wrong with that if students are learning and the curricular goals are being met. Most teachers I know are constantly reassessing their teaching practice and tweaking it in new ways to better their efforts and the learning of their students. So perhaps to the teacher, how curriculum is taught is more of a focus then what.

References:

Egan, K. (1978). What Is Curriculum? Curriculum Inquiry, 8(1), 65. doi:10.2307/1179791

BC’s New Curriculum. (n.d.). Retrieved July 09, 2020, from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/adst/10/woodwork

Blades, D. (1997) Procedures of Power in a Curriculum Discourse: Conversations from Home. JCT, 11(4), 125-155

Su, S. (2012). The Various Concepts of Curriculum and the Factors Involved in Curricula-making. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 3(1). doi:10.4304/jltr.3.1.153-158