Students' Perspectives on Integrative Curricula: The Case of Brown Barge Middle School

Abstract

AbstractThis study explores how a middle school integrative learning environment influenced students' perspectives of curriculum, of schooling and of learning. Using social constructivism as a theoretical framework for the study and using an ethnographic interview procedure, 14 ninth-and tenth-grade students, who were purposively selected, were interviewed to determine their feelings about their former experiences at Brown Barge Middle School (BBMS) in Pensacola, Florida. Additional information was gathered by conducting a brief, although highly focused, case study on BBMS. We examined the school's curriculum documents, reviewed student work, and observed classroom teaching at the school. Selected BBMS students were interviewed in focus groups to discuss BBMS curriculum with former students of the school. Data analysis was carried out using constant comparison method. Three themes pertaining to students' perspectives emerged during data analysis: thinking and learning integratively, constructing knowledge...