The Emerging Curriculum: A Reflection

The Emerging Curriculum: A Reflection
Curriculum... is not a concept; it is a cultural construction. That is, it is not an abstract concept which has some existence outside and prior to human experience. Rather, it is a way of organizing a set of human educational practices (Grundy 1987). For so many years that I have been involved in the teaching profession this has been my concept of what a curriculum is. It is alive, it is evolving, but only in a sense that changes is injected to it on a regular basis based on what is current in terms of technology and whatever teaching techniques and method is new on the educational scene. Specialist, meaning curriculum specialist and consultant, subjects and technical experts and teachers were involved in the design, upgrade or in enriching a curriculum. It is plan and it is intentional. Ideas were pre-conceived and pre-determined. A blue print for activities.
A curriculum involves formal intentions, that is, intentions deliberately chosen to promote learning. A curriculum articulates the relationships among its different elements (objectives, content, evaluation, etc.), integrating them into a unified and coherent whole
(David Pratt 1980).

A seminar-workshop would initially be set up to answer a need to enrich a curriculum, participants will be identified, all of them professional educators in one way or another. Consultation, a lot of readings, some revisions, and eventually we have a newly designed or an enriched curriculum. Of which, lesson plans will be based. A cut-and-dried plan.

Contrast this to how a Reggio Emilia inspired curriculum would normally evolve;

• A teacher taking note, valuing an identified interest as an opportunity to understand more about the children.

• Establishment of community of small group whose primary aim is to open up and assess the children’s knowledge and interest. Collaboration between adults-parents, teachers, atelierista and pedagogoista.The purpose; discussions of various possibilities, hypothesis and potential directions that an identified project might take.


• The teacher organizing and galvanizing each child to participate and to grow, within the context of a group investigation. The child is a part, an essential part, but only a part. Encouraging discussion among the children by asking a series of open-ended questions that the parents had help formulate.

• Documenting the discussions and succeeding activities. Taking note of the cognitive taking place. Assessing if genuine interest is present for a deeper sense of inquiry to sustain continued interest the activity. Having in mind-during this phase of assessing, not the child’s acquired knowledge but his construction of knowledge and knowing all too well that the involvement of a adult legitimizes the child’s knowledge and curiosity.


• Posing a challenge to the children. ‘Would the children want to do it?’ ‘Could they do it? Measuring the degree of motivation on the part of the children. Assessing the children’s individual capacity to react to a challenge in an effort to the cognitive learning process in the group.

• The teacher actively guiding and shaping, but not controlling the discussion and flow of how the project is going into. Taking note of the depth of inquiry the children had gone into to meet the posed challenge.

• The re-reading of the experience and the transfer of the children’s acquired knowledge. The exercise, clarifying and consolidating the knowledge gain from their work.


For so many years I have worked with students whose sense of achievement was invariably twined to the idea of competition. A concept made possible by the cut and dried plans and intentions identified in the design of a linear and rigid curriculum. A child’s presence in the classroom is perceived to serve two singular purpose, that of competing and succeeding while gaining knowledge.

In my talk with a number of individuals who had been – in one way or another- exposed to the current character of student’s present on the aboriginal reserve I have been made to understand that motivation to acquire knowledge is a bit below the national average and knowledge construction and depth of knowledge acquisition is quite marginalized. I have also, just recently come to a realization that my two decades of classroom instruction is not enough to overcome the aforementioned challenges. And that I would need an approach that would require me to explore and go a bit deeper into a child’s psyche to be able to reach out, to be able to motivate if not to provoke or cause encouragement to do an inquiry and go into an exploration of a subject that is of interest to him/her.

What type of provocation would I pose? How would the type of medium (language) affect the quality a child’s response to a provocation. How would I pose the provocation. What kind of inquiry would tickle or provoke the minds of children who were made to lead a life that is next to hopelessness and who had very little idea of what prosperity means.

The idea of having to design an emerging and working curriculum through observation talk and discussion and collaboration with children, parents, and other community stakeholder to overcome the challenges that had beguiled me had intrigued me to no end.

atmansilla
university of manitoba