Curriculum in the Making: Theory, Practice, and Social Action Curriculum Projects

Authors

  • Brian D. Schultz
  • Jon E. Baricovich

Abstract

This article explores the ways a Social Action Curriculum Project (SACP) framework offered opportunities for students in a graduate level education course to wrestle with the complexity of an ever-evolving school experience. SACPs are a curriculum process that provide for multiple and varied ways for teachers and students to engage in active democratic participation and experiential learning. SACPs challenge normative approaches to schooling in a teacher education setting and in turn in P"“12 settings because they focus on the potential of a curriculum in the making through action-oriented, theoretically-grounded projects related to the graduate students' interests reflective of social issues. Using narrative inquiry of the graduate student experience while engaged in the SACP, the authors analyze the ways that democratic skills practiced through a SACP framework push schooling beyond classrooms and schools, out into the public sphere"”a place where authentic, integrated, emergent, organic, and rigorous learning takes place.

Author Biographies

Brian D. Schultz

Brian D. Schultz is Associate Professor, Honors Faculty, and Associate Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership & Development at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. He is the author of Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way, co-editor of Handbook of Public Pedagogy, and editor of the forthcoming Listening to and Learning from Students.

 

Jon E. Baricovich

Jon E. Baricovich is Bilingual Education Program Director for Summit School District 104 near Chicago. Jon earned degrees in Spanish, Educational Administration, and Bilingual Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is interested in teaching for social justice in systems serving students of linguistic and cultural minority.

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Published

2010-09-12