So, I’m reading a book for graduate school called Multimodal Discourse, and the book makes an interesting point about the dis-articulation of such professions as teaching: simply, that teaching is moving from a multimodal practice in which teachers design and implement curriculum, to a monomodal practice in which separate specialists create, design, and implement curriculum. Formerly (i.e. prior to curriculum design specialists getting a hold of our curriculum), teachers both designed and implemented their own curriculum. Teachers created freely, the way I prefer to do it. Now, though, more and more districts are dis-articulating, that is, moving towards a more mainstreamed curriculum, one that is prescribed for all teachers; the teachers implement the curriculum rather than create and implement the curriculum.
My question is this: Are we moving backwards as a profession? Why are teachers being disallowed to create curriculum? State tests maybe? Accountability? Competition? A need for a common knowledge base?
I think that a happy medium can be found in having teachers partner with curriculum specialists and district managers so that no curriculum is ever created without classroom practice and a real working knowledge of students taken into account. To dis-articulate without continuing to take the teachers’ knowlege and experiences into account seems counterproductive.
Of course I can see the value in a core curriculum, but let’s not forget the students and their practical education, okay?
