Learning to "be" in a new century: reflections on a curriculum in transition

Abstract

Abstract Future-focused theoretical thinking about education exhibits an ontological turn, with attendant advocacy for more attention to be paid to the nature of and to students' identity development. This article explores the second of these recommendations and makes the case that students' selves should be an important curriculum focus if they are to participate positively in the age. Developing a sense of wellbeing that allows students to contribute to a diverse and rapidly changing society requires a more holistic view of self that is developed through learning experiences that are both practical and academic, and also model personal responsibility within the provision of appropriate social support. Using New Zealand's Health and Physical Education learning area as an example. the article explores the potential for authentic inquiry to meet the demanding challenges of making students' being at least as much a curriculum focus as their knowing. Introduction School education cannot help but be caught up in the rapidly changing social conditions called the knowledge age (Gilbert, 2005). This era has brought changes in thinking about both the nature of and the nature of a sell', with accompanying debate about the meaning and place of and as an aspect of the school curriculum. While changes in thinking about and about identity are closely intertwined, this paper takes the second of them--the meaning of self--as the change explored. When the social world is changing rapidly, a sense of self and of location becomes a critical anchor when considering how best to respond to that change. For this reason the self is a central concept when teaching any subject that bears on wellbeing. The Health and Physical Well-being learning area, (1) with its three subjects of health, physical education, and home economics, provides an interesting example of some directions in which the school curriculum at large might evolve to meet the learning needs of the age. The national curriculum for this learning area was mandated second to last of the current seven curriculum documents (Ministry of Education, 1999). It takes a constructivist approach to learning and is underpinned by several big with an interesting mix of theoretical orientations. These include the concepts of social determinants of health and health promotion, together with critical action or action competence, and an interpretation of the Maori concept of wellbeing as hauora. (2) These ideas are explored in more detail in the second half of this paper. More recently, a review of New Zealand's entire curriculum has led to a Curriculum Marautanga Project (CMP), still under way. Part of this project is exploring the introduction of five key competencies into the next version of the national curriculum. These are based on the OECD DeSeCo research concerning the outcomes of learning necessary to lead to a successful life in a well-functioning society (see, for example, Rychen & Salganik, 3003). The five key competencies for New Zealand's national curriculum, (3) as these were named at the time of writing, (4) are: relating to others; managing self; participating and contributing; pursuing knowledge; and using languages, symbols, and texts. The nature of and in relation to the proposed key competencies has been a particular focus of the discussion in the Curriculum Project (Rutherford, 2004) (5) and it has currently replaced and contributing, which was the earlier title for this competency (Ministry of Education, 2005). Participating and contributing is seen as an important aspect of the provision of continuity from early childhood into school-level education (Carr & Peters, 2005), as a central component of the successful transfer of learning (Carr, 2004; Rychen & Salganik, 2003) and as an important factor in the motivation to learn (Willms, 2003). …