Creating Connections: Literacy and Curriculum

I am currently enrolled in both Literacy and Curriculum in Middle and High School, and recently created two projects to demonstrate my understanding of both concepts. The purpose of the literacy project is to take a deep-dive into what the different facets of literacy in the digital age mean, especially considering skills my future students will need to succeed. I chose to focus on the ideas behind visual literacy as well as equity literacy for my literacy project. The curriculum project is meant to help me assess and engage with my curriculum orientation, which essentially is what a teacher believes should be the guiding philosophy behind learning. In my curriculum project, I discovered I primarily align with the philosophy of social reconstructionism! 

It is easy to see some very clear connections between the content of these two presentations and the mission of the Saint Michael’s College Education Department. The mission statement explains that it is the vision of the college that the education programs will “contribute to the advancement of culture through education, with an emphasis on creativity, curiosity, collaboration, reflection and social justice”. This mission is further explained in multiple pillars, which is where I see the primary connection to my literacy and curriculum projects. These two projects called for our class of students to be reflective and contemplative practitioners in that we were meant to use sound theoretical approaches to teaching as a guide to the student-first decision-making process. The two aspects of researching theory and finding solid practices to learn from to then reflect on the new knowledge and synthesize it in relation to ourselves met the goal for these projects. Another pathway to the mission is through the lens of thinking of the students in my classes as being committed to social justice and sustainability. Understanding that literacy has multiple points of access in terms of both relevance in the world and student approachability is using a specific curriculum orientation to engage with critical consciousness and promote equity for all. 

The connections between understanding the origin and relevance of my curriculum orientation and learning about the breadth of literacy are numerous. In my curriculum project, I learned that the primary ideas behind social reconstructionism are that schools are responsible for taking the lead in reconstructing society by helping students learn to handle controversy and recognize multiple perspectives through engaging with the world in a critical way. In my literacy project I learned of equity literacy, which is a framework for multicultural curriculum development and the larger effort of creating equitable classrooms in schools. When social reconstructionism and equity literacy are combined they create an action-based mindset that assess students as instrumental members of their communities. It is in this structure that students are critical thinkers who need to see aspects of their communities in their education in order to make effective change in the world. 

Now that I have completed these projects, I feel like I can’t think of a world where enabling students to make change isn’t at the forefront of everyone's minds. I have always thought of teaching as one of the best ways I could give of myself to my community, however I didn’t have the proper name for it. I knew in the back of my mind that I wanted these principles to guide my teaching process, but after that I thought no more of it. I want to bring as many perspectives and experiences to the learning environment as possible in order to help my future students to engage with the world and become well-rounded human-beings. I understand more fully now that at the heart of my teaching will be inspiring change within my future students.