Spring 2025 - EDUC 820 G031

Current Issues in Curriculum and Pedagogy (5)

Class Number: 4571

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Location: TBA

  • Instructor:

    Michael Ling
    gling@sfu.ca
    604.839.2623
    Office: EDB 8666 Burnaby Campus
    Office Hours: By arrangement: in person on class weekends at Harbour Centre or elsewhere in its environs; by Zoom at other times

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Focuses on educational issues, trends and practices which impact teaching and learning in schools and other educational settings.

COURSE DETAILS:

Meeting Dates:
January 10/11
January 24/25
February 7/8 
February 21/22
March 7/8
March 21/22

Meeting Times:
Fridays 5:00pm-9:00pm
Saturdays 8:30am-4:30pm

Meeting Location:
Harbour Centre Campus, Vancouver

Additional Details:

Situated as it is, near the end of your 2-year journey, this course might best be seen as an opportunity to reflect on what you have experienced and considered so far, and, as a platform for extending these experiences and considerations in light of the experiences and considerations of various ‘curricular and pedagogical issues’ of our time that we will take up together.

We might think of these ‘issues’ as institutional ones, practical ones, social ones, cultural ones, political ones, personal ones, or of any other domain or sphere you feel is relevant. Furthermore, we can think of ‘curriculum and pedagogy’ in the formal, structural, organizational senses of the terms (ie, ‘the content and path of learning’ and the ‘approaches to learning’ as defined by a ‘teacher’ or ‘school’ or ‘program), along with the informal, organic, or broader ‘life-world’ senses of the terms (ie, curriculum and pedagogy as emergent and contextual/situational pathways and approaches to learning).

In a more compact way, a key aim of the course is for us to individually and collectively/collaboratively identify, think about, and propose responses to issues that you feel are pertinent to considerations of ‘contemplation’ in our time, whether these are in professional settings and practice, or in personal or collective living.

We’ll structure the course in the old timey sense of a ‘seminar,’ that is, a collective and collaborative planting and cultivating of ‘seeds’ of ideas, practices, activities to see what might grow, and at our first class, we’ll discuss together what this might entail.

In addition, in the interests of co-creating this course together, I will send to you a short survey before the beginning of the term, something I call “a Prelude to a Syllabus,” which I will ask you to fill out, send back to me, which we will likewise then discuss at our first class, and from which we will draw in shaping our time together.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

  1. To further deepen your understandings of ‘contemplation’ in light of both issues of our time, and their curricular and pedagogical implications.
  2. To further deepen your own questions, explorations and practices of contemplation, and of education, your understandings of ‘curriculum and pedagogy’ in relation to contemplation, and to articulate these things in thoughtful, scholarly, and creative ways.
  3. To further deepen your work “in developing communities of practice characterized by kindness, generosity, dialogue, and presence and compassion for self and others” (I borrow this last ‘goal,’ with gratitude, from my dear colleague, Dr. Charles Scott).

Grading

  • The Idea and the Practice of Contemplation in our Times/What does Contemplation mean to me now: A Personal View of a Current or Contemporary Issue relating to Contemplation, Curriculum, and Pedagogy in our Moment (Personal, oral presentation, Friday nights) 20%
  • Small Group Presentation of a Curricular and/or Pedagogical Contemplative ‘Intervention’ 20%
  • End of Term Poster Session and Roundtable Discussion 20%
  • Summative Reflection on Issues and Responses (range of possible formats to be discussed) 40%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

There are no ‘required’ texts to buy for our course. The ‘readings’ we explore may well be literally textual (articles, book chapters, and the like), but they might also be ‘listenings’ (interviews, documentaries, podcasts, etc), or ‘viewings’ (videos, films, etc). These will be accessed via the SFU Online Library system, or from open sources on the Web. To be discussed at our first class.


RECOMMENDED READING:

St. Thomas Aquinas is purported to have advised: “beware the man (sic) of one book” (Cave ab homine unius libri), and while those are indeed wise words to heed, I will offer for your consideration here, and will explain why when we meet, this book:

Laughlin, C. D. (2020) The Contemplative Brain: Meditation, Phenomenology, and Self-Discovery from a Neuroanthropological Point of View. Daily Grail Publishing. (PLEASE NOTE: this is not a ‘veiled’ demand nor even a ‘strong’ recommendation that you buy the book, unless in researching it yourself, you find it of personal interest and relevance; rather, this is simply an idiosyncratic suggestion of something that might be of interest, about which I will say more when we meet.)


ISBN: 978-0994617699

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.