Teachers as Curriculum Makers

Teachers as curriculum makers is an image that acknowledges the teacher as a holder, user, and producer of knowledge, a self-directed individual who takes the curriculum as given and negotiates it in active relationship with students to address their needs as learners and, to the extent possible, meet the requirements outlined in stated curriculum documents. Unfortunately, the fields of curriculum and teaching have evolved independent of one another in much the same way as Division B (Curriculum) and Division K (Teaching) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) have developed separately. A similar structural and relational divide is apparent within teacher education and curriculum faculties lodged in departments and colleges of education. Disconnects between the knower and the known have abounded in the educational enterprise ...