Curriculum Development

Levins Article

In Levin’s article “Curriculum Policy and the Politics of what Should be Learned in Schools” we ultimately come to understand school curriculum. School curriculum is ultimately developed and implemented by government officials, The Ministry of Education, textbook companies and others. In order for a new or revised curriculum to come about the government will ultimately need to bring together groups of experts. These experts may be knowledgeable about a certain subject area in accordance with the curriculum but not necessarily about the process of teaching children within the classroom. Thankfully, there are teachers involved in this process who would better be able to give insight into this aspect because if the curriculum is not teacher friendly it most likely will not be incorporated into the classroom as much as it could be. Something that concerns me about this fact is that students are the last on the totem pole in regards to giving input on curriculum but are the most impacted by these choices in our schools. I feel that students should be able to voice their opinion more on what they view is useful as they continue learning. 

Treaty Document

After taking a look through the Treaty education document it is clear to see how much effort and time is contributed to making these documents. The simple connection to make between Levin and the treaty document is all the people involved in making the curriculum. I was happy to see that people of Indigenous culture were the main contributors to this document and as well that they seeked help and wisdom from two elders as they are ultimately the most important people to consult. Some of the tensions I feel that could have went into this document is the fact that The Ministry of Education and the different Indigenous councils could have differing views on what is important for students to understand about treaties. Another issue I can relate to is that not all teachers will view this document as “important” in the classroom. My mom is a high school teacher and she has told me time and time again that teachers in her school don’t really view treaties as important in the classroom therefore they try to steer clear of teaching about them. This saddens me that teachers feel this way because treaties are not only an important part of our past but also our future.