Carson’s curriculum proposal, which he called Ourstory, is a unique and fairly unprecedented attempt to apply the cognitive theories of post-modern psychology and Vygotskian educational theories to the contemporary school system and its students. In it, he attempts to address one of the central underlying problems of the current public education system; namely, that at current there is little to no integration between lessons or classes, with each concept presented in a cognitive vacuum. With no overarching framework to tie ideas together, or method with which to relate to them, student are all too often cast adrift in a sea of facts and data points without a compass to guide them in an “insidious form of disenfranchisement” (Carson, 1998, p. 2). Without any sense of coherence or apparent relevance, many students simply throw up their hands in frustration and give up on vast tracts of human knowledge. This serves neither the student’s interests, nor the educational system as a whole.
“‘Which came first,” Carson posits, glibly borrowing from the classic conundrum, “the symbol or the concept?’ The answer is… neither, they arise together in a co-evolutionary process” (Carson, 2003, p. 12). This symbiotic relationship between the idea itself and the means to express it build upon itself, adding layer after layer over generations and, fortunately, giving us the necessary tools to relay those millennia of accumulated knowledge to an individual in a mere fraction of a human lifespan (p. 12). This ability to impart, however, is dependent on the dialectical relationship between teacher and educator, and its ability to relate the information garnered into a cohesive and relatable pattern for the learner. As the mind is inherently “a pattern-seeking and pattern-making mechanism,” it will tend to discard anything which does not fit into the “relevance agenda” it itself defines (Carson, 2002, p. 232, 240). Thus for an educational institution to most effectively reach its students, it must not only seek to present information and facts, but also to present them in a relatable and relevant manner.
Carson’s Ourstory seeks to fill this gap in contemporary curriculum. As the name of the program implies his proposal is to, beginning in middle school, present education as an interwoven and relatable “epic tale” of human empowerment, applicable to each student at the most basic level (Carson, 2002). By allowing students to “discover” humanity’s great innovations for themselves, and then relating back to a historical narrative, Carson’s program would grant students a “prescience of the benefits that they will obtain from such demanding work,” thereby precluding the question of relevancy in the mind of the student (p. 243).
There are, of course, certain ideas one must subscribe to if Carson’s proposal is to carry weight. For instance, one must be able to put aside the familiar Western-centric vision of scientific culture and achievement which permeates the strata of academia. Though the modern scientific conceptualization occurred in Europe, that was “but one phase of a process that has spanned thousands of years” and is “both in its origins and in its current global reach, a legitimate possession of all humankind” (Carson, 1998, p. 6). Another central idea to his proposal is that disciplines and ideas should not – and perhaps cannot – be adequately explored or understood in isolation from one another. Just as no discipline, breakthrough, or study occurred purely divorced from the history and simultaneous goings on of other disciplines, so too is any student’s understanding dependant on an overall understanding of events, rather than an overly narrow focus on sheer data. By finding that underlying current of relevance and mutuality early on, it would prepare students to enter high school and college ready “to engage in the more specialized study characteristic of these institutions without students feeling the kind of disconnection that comes from studying an abstract discipline out of context and without adequate background” (Carson, 2002, 243).
Ultimately the goal of education is to prepare the learning mind for what lies ahead by providing it a framework and basis from which to build its own ideas, solutions, and theories once those scaffolds and training wheels have been removed. This can only be accomplished if the learner is able to see the benefits and relevance to themselves ahead of time. Without such motivation, most people will make a simple calculation and determine that the cost of time, frustration, embarrassment, and effort isn’t worth the unseen future benefit. Carson’s Ourstory proposes to take the current flash card deck of data contained in public education and arrange it into a novel, an “epic tale” of humanity: relatable, memorable, and worthwhile. Despite the difficulties and potential drawbacks of such a proposal, it remains a powerful and viable idea.
References
Carson, R. (1998). “Ourstory—A culturally-based curriculum framed by history.” EDCI 552 Coursepack. Montana State University, Northern Plains Transition to Teaching, Bozeman, Montana.
Carson, R. (2002). “The epic narrative of intellectual culture as a framework for curricular coherence.” Science & Education, 11. 231–246
Carson, R. (2003). “A Vygotskian Perspective on Culture & Cognition: A Reflection on How Tools Mediate Action .” EDCI 552 Coursepack. Montana State University, Northern Plains Transition to Teaching, Bozeman, Montana.
No comments:
Post a Comment