Constructing a rich curriculum for all: One school's enactment of curricular justice

Constructing a rich curriculum for all: One school's enactment of curricular justice

In this paper, we report on one Australian high school's involvement in a project designed to engage teachers in the principles of curricular justice. However, as curriculum and pedagogy are inextricably linked, it is impossible to discuss the ‘what’ of teaching without explaining the ‘how’ or the ‘enactment’ of curricular content. We contend that achieving ‘curricular justice’ is predicated upon all young people having access to the breadth and depth of differing knowledges and skills that will enable them to thrive in a democratic society. A ‘socially just curriculum’ does not narrow such opportunities and pathways based upon preconceived notions of what certain groups of students might be capable of or the futures they might be destined for. The principles of social justice underpinning this paper draw on the works of scholars such as Raewyn Connell (1993) and Nancy Fraser (1997). Regarding curricular content, we have utilised a combination of Michael Young's ideas about ‘powerful’ curriculum situated within the context of Gonzalez et al.'s (2005) ‘funds of knowledge’ approach used to bridge the gaps between students' lives and new horizons of knowledge. This ‘knowledge+’ strategy sits at the heart of this research. The government high school chosen for this paper to exemplify the project serves a high-poverty community and has struggled with academic engagement in lower secondary disciplines drawn from the formal Australian Curriculum. Prevailing schooling attitudes towards the Australian Curriculum tend to regard it as somewhat inflexible; however, that is not the reality. Within the parameters of core content and skills, school discipline leaders have the freedom to determine teacher autonomy within their schools. Teaching workloads, along with social trends that de-professionalise teachers, have encouraged subject heads to become more prescriptive of content and pedagogy. This project wanted to change that so that participants had the freedom to experiment as curriculum workers using concepts of ‘powerful knowledge’ and ‘funds of knowledge’, to create a ‘knowledge+ curriculum’ which would be inherently culturally responsive, extended curricular reach and hence a socially just curriculum.