Exegesis 2

General statement?? (up to 50 words)

Aim and Rationale (up to 400 words)

With all curricula comes some political debate surrounding who ‘owns’ the curriculum, or
which stakeholder has the biggest role in its development (Brady & Kennedy, 2018). The
entire community has a stake in the curriculum’s content and form, since it allows students
to obtain essential knowledge and skills which are required for them to become engaged
and informed citizens in a democratic society. The knowledge and skills which students gain
during schooling impacts the government, employers, institutes of higher education,
parents, teachers, and students, and each of these parties have distinct curricular needs
(Brady & Kennedy, 2018). While there may be many parties that have some sort of stake in
this particular curriculum, it is written with students in mind. Due to the long-term and
serious nature of climate change, it’s vital that students learn in ways which permit them to
be prepared for its effects, while building lasting skills in adaptability in how they learn. The
design of the curriculum will focus on the students undertaking the learning, since the
curriculum aims to provide knowledge and skills to best deal with issues which they may
face in the future, and building a society which is environmentally literate and better
prepared to face climate change.

The climate change curriculum also ties in with some orientations of the curriculum
proposed by Eisner and Vallance (1974) (Marsh, 2009). The aim and rationale, in particular
have strong ties to a social reconstructionist orientation of curriculum. This orientation is
centred on schools being an agency of social change (Marsh, 2009), which aligns with the
themes of educating to build a more sustainability conscious society, expressed in the
curriculum’s aim and rationale.

It also has a technological orientation, which aims to develop means to achieve pre-
specified ends (Marsh, 2009). The curriculum draws from this orientation in the sense that it
aim’s to equip students with practical skills that will help them better adapt to climate
change in the future.

Lastly, the interdisciplinary approach of this curriculum has links to an academic rationalist
orientation of curriculum, which encompasses knowledge and ideas from a range of
disciplines (Marsh, 2009). This curriculum takes the view that learning about climate change
should adopt elements of each of these orientations, as they will help to achieve the aim of
the curriculum, to provide students with an understanding of climate change, and the skills
to live in a way which helps to combat it.

The aim and rationale for the climate change curriculum relate strongly to themes of social
justice in curricula. Connell (1992) states that a just curriculum is comprised of three
principles: participation and common schooling, the interests of the least advantaged, and
the historical production of equality (Roberts, 2022). The climate change curriculum actively
embraces these principles, utilising a participatory learning approach which includes direct
engagement with students in the most at-risk Pacific nations; those who are most
disadvantaged. The issue of climate change has some of its most devastating impacts on
those who are already most disadvantaged, despite these people having the least
contribution to its causes. In order for this curriculum to meet its aims and remain in
keeping with its rationale, it needs to address this in its content, and follow the three
principles of a just curriculum (Roberts, 2022).

The Choice of Topic (up to 300 words)

The reason I have chosen climate change is that its global in its impact, there is scientific
consensus about its reality. It is a real thing. It will affect everyone globally. The impacts will
be felt in the future and so the students of today will have to be the ones who deal with it
and study of climate change can incorporate multiple strands of disciplines in the academic
arena. With these considerations in mind, climate change is an appropriate theme for the
development of a multi-disciplinary curriculum, which is appropriate for the future.

While there are many political debates involving who ‘owns’ the curriculum, or which party
has the largest stake in it, there are also debates regarding what, or whose, knowledge is of
most worth (Apple, 1993) (Mockler, 2017). Since the topic of climate change invokes a wide
variety of opinion, this variety exposes the curriculum to potential political debate. The
curriculum’s interdisciplinary approach will allow students to view the issue of climate
change from many different perspectives, and will provide them with the critical thinking
skills to make their own judgements on whose knowledge is of most worth.

Longstreet and Shane (1993) refer to curriculum having four major approaches; these being
a society-oriented curriculum, student-centred curriculum, eclectic-centred curriculum, and
knowledge-centred curriculum (Marsh, 2009). This particular curriculum takes a society
centred-approach, which is focussed around the idea that the purpose of schooling is to
serve society (Marsh, 2009). A society-centred approach is relevant, because the climate
change curriculum works towards building knowledge and skills that serve society. However,
in contrast to many contemporary society-centred curricula, this curriculum is focussed on
serving ‘tomorrow’s’ society.

The Choice of Form (up to 300 words)

Marsh and Willis (2007), name three different levels of curriculum; the planned, enacted,
and experienced curriculum (Marsh, 2009).

The planned curriculum refers to the curriculum prepared and distributed via official
frameworks and documents, such as the Australian Curriculum. The enacted curriculum
refers to what is actually implemented in schools and reflects a school/teacher’s
interpretation of the planned curriculum. The experienced curriculum refers to the formal
learning actually experienced by students in schools (Marsh, 2009).

The climate change curriculum is an example of a planned curriculum (Marsh, 2009). The
curriculum will be written in a less prescriptive way to maintain teacher professionalism
(Luke et al., 2013), and provide a high degree of flexibility about how the curriculum is
enacted, so that teachers can use their professional judgement (Roberts, 2022) and, for
instance, draw on local examples of the effects of climate change, and encourage hands-on
activities, allowing the students to identify the impacts of climate change as it relates to
them and their communities.

Taking this approach to the enacted curriculum impacts how the curriculum is experienced
by the students. It is expected that student’s experience of the curriculum, will be varied
depending on their local situation, personal circumstances, and to some extent, their own
interests. A common theme, tying the experience of all students completing the curriculum,
will be the engagement that this curriculum proposes with students in Pacific countries. This
will ensure that all students completing the curriculum engage with the social justice
element of the curriculum, and provides scope for students to experience this engagement
in their own way. [This is a prescriptive element of the curriculum].

Teachers are professionals, and can, and should use their professional judgement in the
classroom to enact the planned curriculum (Roberts, 2022), this can allow the teacher to
make the delivery of the content more relevant to students and their circumstances, i.e.
where they live, socioeconomic status.

While the engagement with pacific students as part of the curriculum will comprise a
prescriptive element of the curriculum, the balance of the curriculum will be largely non-
prescriptive to maintain teacher professionalism and encourage adaptability to local
conditions and or student interests (Luke et al., 2013).

The Choice of Material to be Covered (up to 300 words)

 The idea of powerful knowledge vs knowledge of the powerful: (module 4)


The Related Inclusions and Exclusions (up to 300
words)
 The idea of ‘what knowledge is of most worth?’ or ‘whose knowledge is of most
worth’ and the fact that there are debates/political issues surrounding this (Apple,
1993) (Mockler, 2017).


The Choice and Structure of Assessment (up to 350

words)
 Assessment has the dual purposes of development and improvement, and
accountability and confidence, the latter indicating the increased number of
stakeholders in schooling. Eisner (1993) believes that assessment serves the
purposes of temperature taking, gatekeeping, objectives assessment, feedback to
teachers and programme appraisal.

 Assessment should be a continuous and integral part of teaching/learning; Be varied;

be valid; be diagnostic; be situated; engage the learner; value teacher judgement;
require sensitivity to wholes rather than to elements; be sensitive to culture, gender,
disability, language and socioeconomic status; and have the same meaning for
teachers, parents and students.
 The central assessment strategy is observation, which may be unstructured, focused
or systematic, and should ideally involve a high degree of interaction with students.
 Issues surrounding assessment include the technical issues of validity, reliability and
fairness, and the broader ‘value’ issues related to the purposes of assessment.
 ( from brady and kennedy chapter 11)
 Effective reporting necessitates an understanding of parents’ information needs.
These are conceptualised by Groundwater-Smith and White (1995) As involving
cyclical needs, contextual needs and social information needs.
o Cyclical – throughout the year, finding the balance of too much information
where parents are overwhelmed, and too little where its stuff they already
know
o Contextual – thinking about the contexts of the school/geographical area
o Social information – the way it is communicated may influence the message
received by parents.
  Reporting should involve the expectations of the system and community, include
student input where possible, be meaningful and valid, and relate to the curriculum
in question.
 (from brady and kennedy chapter 12)

Conclusion?? (up to 50 words)