Review Of Chapter 32: Curriculum For The 21st Century

Curriculum Reader IV Martina Hughes
Chapter 32: Curriculum for the 21st Century
School curriculum all over the world are organized into courses centered on the traditional disciplines. It is interesting to read that the United States, while open to new courses, counts on the traditional disciplines for college admission. Nel Noddings asks the provocative question whether “it is demonstrably unfair to force students into courses they hate and deprive them of courses (or programs) better suited to their talents and interests” (2007). Should there be an alternative to traditional curriculum? The aims of the current educational system are that students will be economically successful and continue to keep the country’s economic superiority going.
For some reason we have a large minority of Hispanic students in our small town, mainly from Mexico. Therefore I read with interest Dr. Chan’s chapter. She writes about a diverse school in Canada where there was a field trip scheduled which challenged the teachers’ perspectives and beliefs and showed how there is not an easy solution or maybe any satisfactory solution for complex problems. In order for students to be exposed to more than the in-school curriculum they planned an outdoor field trip which the community development worker labels as “an opportunity for students who might not otherwise be able to participate…and spoke about the importance of equality for access for children” (2006). However, teachers and the author are surprised, when not all children, especially females from South Asia are allowed to participate due to cultural differences. Chan writes, “acknowledging culture in the curriculum is complicated: good intentions might be misconstrued…” (2006). This brings to mind our school district, where the intentions are there, for example we had a professor teach us about the different regions of the Hispanic countries at the last professional development teacher meeting, give us statistics about occupations, income, contribution of Hispanics to the local and the US economy and talk about common values, disbar stereotypes etc. of Hispanics. The implementation of changing the curriculum to include that cultural diversity, however, is not there. Many of our Hispanic students are in ESL classes, where the goal is to fit in. It is as Dr. Chan writes, “We have the expectation that children of minority background need to “adapt” to “our” school system, but we overlook that, as a host country for immigrants, we also need to explore the extent to which this relationship may be reciprocal” (2007). A complex problem, we want the minorities to fit in, but we also want them to