By the rivers of water : writing the roots of curriculum
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Date
2001
Authors
Squance, Maria
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Education
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Education, 2001
Abstract
This thesis portrays an attempt to write and learn from the whole of life within and through
the framework of a thesis. Written in the place- and space-times of three years it both
questions and searches for the meaning of curriculum as the "running of the course," the
purpose and methods and frameworks by which I live and write. Part of an ongoing
personal journey to understand inclusion, the thesis begins with an understanding that
change towards a more inclusive world involves change in my self, and the desire and intent
to practice a different way of knowing my own interrelatedness with others and world. Both
the content and form of the thesis explore the main themes of relationship and expression;
how the hidden and unwritten parts of past, of self, of other, belong in the present and can
be brought to birth. It is presented as a layered portrait showing the many forms through
which I come to understand and articulate the world over time. My own words—poetry,
autobiographical pieces, journal entries, letters, and interpretive pieces-are the means to
bringing lost themes in my life to meaning on the pages of a thesis. But writing and life are
more than self-expression. Through the words and presence of others, through living with
and reading and responding to the other, I learn a more meaningful course of action.
Writing and living in relation to others as woman, graduate student, teacher, family member
and immigrant, I come to an understanding of my self and my place with others in the world
as one of responsibility and response. In writing the meaning of my curriculum I also write
possible meanings for education. Through mindful presence a teacher can look below the
surface to see the worth of another, and give a response that will birth and nurture a
curriculum waiting to be born. Writing personal experience in the framework of a thesis,
while problematic throughout, in the end I found necessary to bring outside to inside,
objectivity to subjectivity, interpretation to art, and tentative, uncertain conclusion to radical
questioning. In the very end I find silence. The mystery of the unknowable, the eloquence of
the inexpressible in its presence. Yet always the longing, the reaching, to understand and
give voice. And so I sit at the side of the river writing, leaf by leaf, layer by layer, the roots of
curriculum.
Description
xi, 126 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.
Keywords
Teachers -- Biography , Squance, Maria , Dissertations, Academic