Curriculum Making, Reciprocal Learning, and the Best-Loved Self

178 Pages·2020·2.87 MB·English

by  Cheryl J. Craig

Curriculum Making,
Reciprocal Learning,
and the
Best-Loved Self
Cheryl J. Craig
Intercultural Reciprocal Learning in Chinese
and Western Education
Series Editors
Michael Connelly
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON, Canada
Shijing Xu
Faculty of Education
University of Windsor
Windsor, ON, Canada
This book series grows out of the current global interest and turmoil
over comparative education and its role in international competi-
tion. The specific series grows out of two ongoing educational
programs which are integrated in the partnership, the University of
Windsor-Southwest University Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning
ProgramandtheShanghai-Toronto-BeijingSisterSchoolNetwork.These
programs provide a comprehensive educational approach ranging from
preschool to teacher education programs. This framework provides a
structure for a set of ongoing Canada-China research teams in school
curriculum and teacher education areas. The overall aim of the Partner-
ship program, and therefore of the proposed book series, is to draw on
school and university educational programs to create a comprehensive
cross-cultural knowledge base and understanding of school education,
teacher education and the cultural contexts for education in China and
the West.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15114
Cheryl J. Craig
Curriculum Making,
Reciprocal Learning,
and the Best-Loved
Self
Cheryl J. Craig
Department of Teaching, Learning & Culture
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX, USA
Intercultural Reciprocal Learning in Chinese and Western Education
ISBN 978-3-030-60100-3 ISBN 978-3-030-60101-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60101-0
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For Imogen
Foreword
Curriculum making, reciprocal learning and the best-loved self invites us
to enter into a personal journey, walking along with Cheryl Craig as she
reflects on her three lines of inquiry. This book is at the same time an
individual’s story—the author’s experiences as a scholar of teaching and
as a scholarly teacher—and a call for rethinking teaching and the study
of it. Craig begins her book reflecting on personal challenges that affect
her deeply as she begins writing. She is also publishing this volume at
a timely moment, one that speaks to the heightened need to understand
teachingandtobenefitfromthefreshinsightsofferedby“lookingacross”
(Clandinin, 2013, p. 13) not only research studies but cultural contexts.
This book is powerfully a story of stories. Readers are invited to hear
and see Cheryl think out loud as she revisits stories from a range of
teachers—from different school and national contexts and at different
stages of their teaching careers. Using what Schwab (1983) called “serial
interpretation,” Cheryl Craig thinks across these individual stories, as
well as visits the stories of individual teachers over time, to develop new
understandings of curriculum and the powerful, albeit vulnerable, work
of teachers. Along the way, Cheryl chooses Schwab, Dewey, and Confu-
cius, among others, as thinking companions who spark her inquiry as she
tells her own story, naming some of what she discovers about teaching,
learning, and her commitments and insights as a scholar. This book
persuasively helps us see how stories matter.
vii
viii FOREWORD
Metaphors matter too. Here, metaphors offer sparkling windows onto
the intricate lives of teacher and their practices. In the multilayered
approachCherylcreates,weseethewayssheweavesmetaphorstogether,
allowing us to see patterns while never forcing one story to be subsumed
by some larger frame. The result is a chance for readers to recognize the
significance of different images of teachers—for example, as curriculum
maker or curriculum implementer. Through the forceful reminder of
the need for balance between images, the book emphasizes the human
dimension of teaching and its contextual nature.
Metaphors are powerful ways of shaping what we see: they allow us
a vivid and concrete window into complex phenomena. For those of us
who appreciate the power of words, stories and images, watching Cheryl
explore what lies beneath a metaphor, or how she comes to name an
ineffable but compelling experience, this book’s richness will be a great
delight.
The richness of the rethinking about teaching is deepened by Craig’s
openness to her own learning as a scholar. As she examines curriculum,
teaching and teachers, she explores these questions by making full use,
and even seeking out, what she sees as reciprocal learning opportunities.
Readerscatchglimpsesofclassrooms,conferencevenues,andevenrestau-
rant tables filled with food and conversation not just in the US, but in
such seemingly “different” contexts such as China, Korea, or Russia. I
am impressed by the humility Cheryl brings to her opportunities to learn
from and with her colleagues—teachers, her own students, her research
peers—in new settings. She does not pretend to be an “expert” but
instead seeks to explore the cultural, social, and historical background to
makesenseofanyoneevent;atthesametime,throughherlearningwith
these colleagues, she gains understandings she, and we, might not have
reached.
As I write this preface, and the global pandemic rages in the US, I
am acutely aware that so much of our lives is bound up in the well-
being, insights, and experiences of those outside our borders. While it
may not have been the originating impulse for this book, the reflections
woven throughout the pages of this volume provide a compelling argu-
ment for the value of reciprocal learning. Craig’s ability to see the many
braidsthatmakeupthetapestrythatisteachingisenrichedbythepuzzles
and surprises as well as recognition (of familiarity) offered by her time in
classrooms outside her native and adopted homes of Canada and the US.
FOREWORD ix
While narrating stories of great variety, Craig also paints a picture that
isclear:teachersmatter.Indeed,forsometime,therehasbeenheightened
recognition that teachers are key to education and to students’ learning
(Paine, Blömeke, and Aydarova, O., 2016). While international studies
and reports now routinely trumpet this fact, this book gives us a gener-
ouslypersonalaccountthatwillbeformanyfarmorepersuasive.Inrecog-
nizing the importance of how teachers, and researchers of teaching, seek
to be their “best loved selves,” this book argues for the need to listen
empathetically and reflexively to what, how, and why teachers know and
do, as well as how (and why) we know what we know about teaching.
CherylfindsresonanceinmanyConfucianaphorisms.AsIread,Ikept
thinking of one of the most famous ones: “…in a party of three people,
there must be one from whom I can learn.” This book reflects Cheryl’s
journey as she has shared stories with many in many places. Along the
way,sheisopentolearning,andrelearning.Aswewalkalongsideher,we
in turn benefit as learners.
Lynn Paine, Ph.D.
Professor, Teacher Education
Associate Dean, International Studies
College of Education
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, USA
References
Clandinin, D. J. (2013). Developing qualitative inquiry. Engaging in narrative
inquiry. Left Coast Press.
Paine, L., Blömeke, S., and Aydarova, O. (2016). Teachers and teaching in
the context of globalization. In D. Gitomer, & C. Bell (Eds.), Handbook of
Research on Teaching (5th edition) (pp. 717–786). Washington, DC: AERA.
Schwab, J. (1983). The practical 4: Something for curriculum professors to do.
Curriculum Inquiry, 13(3), 239–265.
Contents
1 Curriculum Making 1 1
2 Curriculum Making 2 57
3 Reciprocal Learning 83
4 The Best-Loved Self 117
Afterword 157
Index 163
xi