Students as Designers of Their Own Life Curricula: Reconstruction of Experience in Education through Thoughtful Deliberative Action

Abstract

Curriculum of Life The myopic subject matter consideration of curriculum gives a sense of a curriculum that is both distant and distinct from life. Rather than students' experiences, some educators, administrators, policy-makers regard the syllabus or sequence of topics as all that there is to curriculum. Such curricular idea suggests a demarcation between students' and experiences. This severity contributes to the loss of the educational values of students' experiences in particular and their lived experiences in general. This article addresses the need to salvage the severed situation and conceives a solution in the theory of the construction of a life curriculum. The theory is part of my contribution to the curriculum conversation. It is a notion of curriculum that administrators and policy-makers should bear in mind in developing a curriculum. It is a theory that should guide teaching and resonate in the mind of teachers as they implement the curriculum. Students also should be aware of this theory of curriculum as they learn and interact with their teachers and as they experience the world. In the elementary and high schools, it is the responsibility of teachers to get the kids to begin to ponder about their lives in relation to the various disciplines of study. Educators focusing on life as the organizing center of curriculum can help students assimilate syllabus within their life curricula. By constructing their life curricula, students take charge of their own learning and lives and design their own curricula in a way that not only retrieves the educational values of their experience, but also merges them with classroom inquiries and teacher interactions. It is important to define the boundaries of the notion of a curriculum of life. To do so I will distinguish between the notion of life as curriculum and the notion of a curriculum of life. The study of life as curriculum is an enormous task that appears to have no boundaries because life involves everything. But the notion of building a curriculum of life--a deep-seated meaning that guides our being and actions--is primarily concerned with students taking charge of their own education, asking practical curricular questions, and learning from past experiences by reconstructing them in the present. Secondarily, there is the transition to curriculum of life that influences future experiences. It does not involve every aspect of life. However, the intellectual journey and conversation leading to the idea touches on different aspects of human experience. The curriculum question has always involved a consideration of what constitutes worthy knowledge. What knowledge is of most worth? (Spencer, 1861, p. 5). This is a basic question in curriculum development. However, considering the nature of curriculum today and its various orientations and relations, I consider the Schubertian version more appropriate, What is worth knowing and experiencing? (1986, p. 411) because it does not demand that we select the most worthwhile and it certainly does not invoke Spencer's sordid, social Darwinism of self-preservation and survival of the fittest. The curricular consideration of what is worth knowing and experiencing has existed as long as humans have considered what they should do and become. It should precede or be embedded in any educational inquiry aimed at curriculum development. Classroom teacher-student inquiry is an example of such curricular investigation. The classroom is a place where students in union with their teachers inquire about is worth knowing and experiencing in their lives. Unlike the customary subject matter consideration of curriculum, such worthy classroom practical inquiry considers all educational experiences--both and school. The words non-school and outside school have sometimes been used interchangeably but I find outside school more suitable. …