Redesigning the menu at school

 

 

 

When I first started teaching we used to have to include the “Curriculum Perspectives” in our Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) curriculum.  We did this by planning a unit of work, and ticking off an inventory in the front of the course framework book.   If indigenous culture was mentioned we proudly stated that we had included an indigenous perspective, if there was a reference to another culture our course had a multicultural perspective.   Using the same ‘tick a box’ method we covered gender, technology, global and futures education.   Our approach was superficial and tokenistic.  We recognised difference but only addressed it though curriculum and teaching practices in the most nominal way.   It was a salad bowl approach, bits of different perspectives tossed together, randomly landing in big glass bowl.  Looking through the bowl we could see lots of little bits of curriculum.  However what the students got depended on what was scooped out in each serving.   Bits of information would land in a random pattern on their plates.  The flavour was ad hoc; the pieces had been cut in different sizes and were masked by a dressing of curriculum and assessment.  

Curriculum has come a long way since those days.  In recent years the Government has published the ’Essential Learning Achievements’ to guide our content and the ‘Quality Teaching Model’ to inform us of best practice.   The tossed salad should now become an artfully arranged platter of crudités, with the sauces of pedagogy deliberately chosen to enhance the flavour and appeal to the tastes and nutritional needs of individuals.    In theory, every student should be now getting a balanced menu of learning experiences.  The ‘menu’ will have been delivered using the expert practices which are described in the Quality Teaching Model.  This is silver service, top notch, individualised, personalised delivery of pluralistic learning that transforms individuals.   It sounds like a recipe for success.   We have the books, some of us have completed departmental courses, and we are ready to implement this new approach.   However, recipes don’t work if ingredients are missing.  They fail if the cook lacks the necessary skills and equipment.   To make matters worse, service is compromised by poor organisation, lack of training and failure to understand the patron’s needs.  The miracle menu may not be so easy to put in place.   

At our school we are lucky; our leaders have foreseen the changes and prepared us for our new ‘menu’.  The Learning by Design Framework positions us well to implement these models with efficiency and ease.   For once, departmental edicts actually reinforce what we are attempting to move towards.   It is affirming to read that we are well on the way to implementing a departmental vision of education.    Over the past few years we have been dismantling our tokenistic salad bowl approach, exchanging it with coherent, cumulative learning that has an inclusive approach.   The transformation is a long, slow process, which builds on the skills and understandings of the teachers who come and go at the school.  However, little by little we are starting to create an inclusive ‘menu’ of learning  in which students are going to develop a fluid understanding of diversity.    There is still much work to be done, but we have the momentum and the equipment to succeed.