Understanding generative curriculum: A hermeneutic and ecological exploration.

摘要

This philosophical analysis was carried out in response to the concerns expressed in frequent conversations by nine elementary school teachers who approach the curriculum generatively. These teachers are concerned about the many modernist pressures on their students which tend to isolate them from other people and the Earth and also replace their creative pursuits with consumption.;These teachers are frequently torn between modernist demands on their teaching (Weigand, 1971) and the possibilities for meaningful teaching recently raised by the writings of generative educators (Clifford and Friesen, 1993; Doll, 1993; Palmer, 1993; Jardine, 1995). Modernist and generative educators have conflicting understandings of the nature of knowledge and the degree to which they believe that students' learning should be preplanned and prescriptive (Franklin, 1992). It is important to examine the philosophical arguments that ground each approach---both to understand what we are defending when we work within each one and to lessen the misunderstandings that can occur when modernist and generative educators try to share their teaching beliefs, values, and practices. The modernist view of knowledge is investigated by examining selected writings of Aristotle, Descartes, and Foucault. The generative understanding is examined through Gadamer's (1994) hermeneutics and ecophilosophy (Leopold, 1991; Lovelock, 1988; Macy, 1991; Oelschlaeger, 1992; Roszak, 1995). Both hermeneutics and ecophilosophy help us understand the importance of connectedness, diversity, reciprocity, and renewal for both knowledge and life.;These philosophical analyses lead to (a) a more finely-grained, inclusive understanding of the practices teachers and students need to engage in to accomplish the social construction of knowledge as a richly woven tapestry, (b) the articulation of a variety of concepts and tools which can increase our ability to communicate with others, especially those with whom we disagree the most, and (c) a deeper understanding of ourselves as embodied beings and the implications of this for our knowledge. Tracing the implications of human embodiedness for our understanding of hermeneutics renewed my understanding of how important our finitude, temporality, and state of thrown-projection are (Gadamer, 1994) in determining the nature of human knowledge.