The emergence of a curriculum: Part I

PSCS Staff Meeting | 09/05/2008 | 2 hours field work | Attendees: Director,
Administrative Director, 4 Teaching Staff members, myself

Having had the opportunity to learn about curriculum development in a Seattle public school setting, I am spending the next several weeks observing (and contributing to) the work of the Puget Sound Community School's (PSCS) staff as they get ready for the school year. I have written about PSCS on other occassions on this blog.

The meeting I attended on September 5 was focused on defining Orientation Week, the first week of the school year. Each year, the teaching staff (5 this year) and students (32 this year), go on a 3 day retreat, away from the school and the city to reconnect as a group, create a sense of being and belonging together that is focused on some theme for the year. Most often, the group spends time getting to know each other, bonding over late night campfires, talking about hopes and wishes, class requests and needs and of course, the theme.

The theme is often connected to a code of behavior that the group creates and agrees to abide by. This is a critical part of the education at PSCS. Said another way, this is an essential part of the curriculum at PSCS. The code of behavior or code of conduct or community contract as it has come to be in the last year is an understanding of trust, respect, care and integrity that every individual, student and staff member tries to internalize and also agrees to. The contract lays the foundation of a safe learning environment for all involved and the promise to create safe space in the larger community. Without a safe space, emergent learning in which every individual follows their natural curiosity and explores the world is not possible. I really appreciate this aspect of the PSCS curriculum. It goes well beyond the usual academic focus of schools and creates the space in which complete and caring humans can evolve.

Another point of focus in this meeting was the staff discussion on class offerings. Before diving into describing some of the class offerings, a word is in order about the process of curriculum creation at PSCS. Curriculum at PSCS is created through a joint effort between facilitators (staff, volunteers and interested students) and all students. The process goes something like this —

1. Individual staff members think of topics that interest them, that are relevant to current events and community happenings, that are relevant to students and meet the needs of specific students.
2. The staff discusses possible offerings before school starts (this is what I got to see at this meeting). This discussion leads to the identification of gaps in offerings in terms of covering student needs and interests.
3. The staff reassess their offerings.
4. During Orientation Week every student engages with their staff advisor to identify their needs and interests.
5. At the end of Orientation Week, the staff, students and volunteers go through a 'scheduling circus' in which students make requests, staff members / volunteers mention offerings and through a circuitous process their is an emergence of consensus on the classes that should go forward.
6. A schedule of classes is created.
7. Classes start after Orientation Week.
8. Staff, students and volunteers can pitch new offerings at any time in the year/quarter and those that have enough interest get on the schedule.

In hearing the staff offerings, I made note of a few characteristics of the PSCS curriculum and how in keeping with the school's philosophy they are:

• There are several offerings connected to current living. This speaks to the 21st century nature of the education like the offering on Building an Electric Car or one on mental faculties relevant to living in today's world.

• Offerings connect to passion and inculcating that in students.

• They combine academic needs with wisdom on living.

• Reading related offerings are meant to foster self-awareness and reflection along with the sense of community and belonging to something larger than yourself.

• Unique combinations like Radio Stories and Art are explored that bring together multiple modalities and ways of learning.

• As much as possible, learning is connected to real life like the class on Oral History to learn history through stories told by seniors who lived through the events.

• All offerings are integrated in nature, treating the topic matter as a whole, not separating it into academic subject needs.

• Offerings engage students to being involved in the growth of the school like a Marketing class for students to learn from that might also benefit the school.

This list is by no means complete but is based on the discussions at the meeting.

I plan to continue attending staff meetings in preparation for the start of school. Further reflections will connect to other aspects of curriculum development at PSCS.