Ch 5 Response/reaction

Ch. 5-Planning goals and leaning outcomes

So far, I have found this chapter to be the most revlevant to my research because it explores the different ideologies behind various curriculum. I didn’t realize that each of these ideologies can actually be categorized. As I read each one, I began to wonder where ME School curriculum fits. I definitely see the learner-centeredness approach being the one that matches the closest to where our language curriculum fits where prior knowledge and growth through experience is essential for learning. I also see the social and economic efficiency being another strong component of our program with the way that the phases are set up with skills and objectives, with the school being a factory that produces students with specific skills with an emphasis on the teaching of English because that is what is expected from the society in which we live. I wished that our model leaned more towards social reconstructionism and cultural pluralism, now that I can actually understand what they mean after being in this program. I think our schools do a poor job in empowering our students to realize the social injustices that relate to class, race, or gender so that they can be filled with hope to make positive change in their lives, schools, and communities. I think that is why we are in this program. Each one of us are becoming “criticalists’ (Richards, 118) with each class that we take. We are all coming to recognize the various forms of control that have been forced and placed upon us through the government and its poor track record in assimilating our culture through education, Indian Education laws, and policies that have undermined our people and culture. I believe that the goal of our district should be one that empowers the philosophy of cultural pluralism where a Yupik speaking child is valued and looked more fondly upon instead of something that may be holding them back from speaking/ reading English more fluently. Too often I feel that the dominant language of English is considered superior to our Yup’ik language here in Bethel, and it really frustrates me because that is what society and the federal government wants all of us minorities to believe.