How to Design the Perfect Curriculum for Diverse Students

Reflecting on My Philosophical and Theoretical Position in Curriculum

Introduction

Throughout the courses CUR 8110 and 9510, I have had the opportunity to pursue philosophical and theoretical positions that inform curriculum design. Initially, my understanding was largely theoretical and focused on the curriculum as a reflection of social values, beliefs and ideals. My recent experiences in these courses included analyzing political influences on education funding and how resources are allocated for public schools. My perspective has changed a bit. The development of curriculum now appears to be impacted to a big degree by political and social influences.

Curriculum as a Reflection of Social Values

In my previous reflection, I looked back on how I believed curriculum embodies values and priorities. The experience of redesigning a social studies curriculum to include diverse perspectives appreciate the importance of multicultural education (Pourdavood & Yan, 2020). But my recent experiences in analyzing political influence on education have revealed to me that curriculum can be manipulated to serve political ends. Different sites and political-educational blogs have shown me how political agendas can influence curriculum content and access, making it necessary for teachers to really push hard for equity and inclusivity. Indeed, one of the biggest revelations from this course is the intersection of curriculum with political elements. For example, my research on how funding is allocated revealed a pattern where subjects deemed politically significant receive more resources (Parinasan et al., 2024).

The discussions in class also helped me realize that merely including diverse content is not enough. Teachers needs skills to move discussions on sensitive topics. They really need professional development programs focusing on multicultural education and the political dimensions of curriculum design (Choi & Lee, 2020).

Transformative Assessment Methodologies

Another area where my perspective has changed is with regard to assessment methodologies. In my previous reflection, I believed we needed a shift towards more comprehensive assessment methods like portfolios and project-based assessments. This course has helped me to gain more confidence in this belief due to the fact that traditional assessments can fail to capture the actual breadth of student learning and can thus end up inadvertently narrowing the curriculum.

I have also come to understand how standardized assessments can be used to further political agendas, which is unfortunate but apparently something that happens and often at the expense of student outcomes (Choi & Lee, 2020). My experiences in this course and my new understanding and insights on the issues related to curriculum design have given me some new areas of focus going forward as a future curricularist. I am now more committed than ever to calling for curricula that are inclusive and responsive to the actual needs of learners. I see myself as being an active participant in the design of curricula. I see it as something that really needs to be done, so that the old inadequate approaches do not limit student success.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the experiences in this course have given me a lot to think about and in that sense have impacted my take on how to approach the development of curriculum and how it is actually shaped by socio-political factors. I want to continue exploring how curriculum development can be addressed more effectively to reflect the diversity of our student body and bring more equity into the learning experience.