Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2024 - EDUC 823 G031

Curriculum and Instruction in an Individual Teaching Speciality (5)

Class Number: 5541

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 4 – Dec 3, 2024: Wed, 4:30–9:20 p.m.
    Surrey

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An intensive examination of developments in a curriculum area selected by the student. In addition the course will deal with major philosophical and historical factors that influence the present state and future directions of curriculum and instruction.

COURSE DETAILS:

This interactive course employs arts-based and imaginative practices to explore imagination in the context of leadership/educational leadership. It aims to deepen and expand students’ understandings of imagination and how it contributes to leadership theory, practice, and pedagogy. A central feature of the course is a personal inquiry: each student will be required to employ arts-based methods to investigate, as learner and leader, their beliefs, values, assumptions and comfort-levels in relation to imagination. Course activities will require students to critically and creatively reflect on course topics and the educational issues they provoke in relation to their own educational and leadership practice.

Meeting Dates:

Wednesdays

Sept 4-Nov 27

Meeting Times:

5:00-8:00 PM (Synchronous)

(Full contact hours = 4:30 PM – 9:30 PM which includes asynchronous work time)

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

Knowing

  • Gain theoretical understanding of the imagination’s role in education
  • Gain theoretical and practical understanding of performative inquiry as a pedagogy and a research methodology
  • Gain theoretical and practical understanding of cognitive tools and their role in leadership
  • Examine an Indigenous perspective on imagination and its implications for leadership
  • Develop understanding of imagination’s role in current leadership theory and research
  • Assess factors that may facilitate and limit creativity and innovation in education and in the context of educational leadership

 Thinking and Being

  • Creatively engage in course content
  • Critically and creatively reflect on your own imagination through course content
  • Employ cognitive tools and other creative thinking processes to support innovative practices within scholarly and professional communities
  • Engage in performative inquiry of course topics

Leading (Doing)

  • Situate your learning in a community of practice and continue to engage with peers to form a community of inquiry (as a cohort)
  • Demonstrate a growth in imaginative/innovative leadership and learning
  • Demonstrate personal and professional growth in one’s understanding and application of leadership in relation to one’s professional practice and program experiences

Grading

  • Weekly in-class work, including ongoing arts-based responses to readings & role play 20%
  • Collaborative Seminar 20%
  • Scholarly Writing: e-postcards—Tugs on the Sleeve 35%
  • Final reflective “performance”—the “selfie” 25%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Judson, G. & Dougherty, M. (Eds.) (2023). Cultivating imagination in leadership: Transforming schools and communities. Teachers College Press. (Available through Amazon or Teachers College Press)

Nachmanovitch, S. (1990). Free play: improvisation in life and art. J.P. Tarcher/Penguin.

ISBN: 978-0-87477-631-7 (Available through Amazon)

+ Articles that will be available through SFU library website


REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Graduate Studies Notes:

Important dates and deadlines for graduate students are found here: http://www.sfu.ca/dean-gradstudies/current/important_dates/guidelines.html. The deadline to drop a course with a 100% refund is the end of week 2. The deadline to drop with no notation on your transcript is the end of week 3.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity website http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the university community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the university. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the university. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.