A vision of the curriculum as student self-creation: A philosophy and a system to manage, record, and guide the process Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Elizabeth Brott Beese, B.A. Graduate Program in Philosophical Studies in Education The Ohio State University 2012 Thesis Committee Bryan Warnick, Advisor Richard Voithofer Copyright by Elizabeth Brott Beese 2012 Abstract This thesis draws upon the interrelated philosophies of constructivism, individualism, self- creation, and narrative identity, to propose a radically liberated and individualized vision of the curriculum. The curriculum is re-framed, here, not as a culturally-prescribed canon of important knowledge and skills, but as a process of aided student self-creation towards their own projected professional and social identities. Finally, a system – with applications of emerging technologies and descriptions of interfaces – is tentatively suggested, towards the aim of recording, managing, and guiding, such a profoundly individualized curriculum. ii Dedication To bigger and better things! iii Acknowledgements With many thanks to the advisors/professors who so supported and/or indulged me in this enterprise, the friends who were sounding boards; and with further thanks to the one-man support system NICHOLAS BEESE, who I am going to marry ten days from the submission of this thing. iv Vita 2007……………………………………………………………………….Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy 2011……………………………………………………....B.A., History, Case Western Reserve University Field of Study Philosophical Studies in Education v Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication .................................................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................... iv Vita ................................................................................................................................................................ v List of Figures ....................................................................................................................................... viii PART I: PHILOSOPHY ............................................................................................................................. 3 For Orientation: An Overview of the Proposal and What it Implies for Schools ........................ 3 A Word about Constructivist Learning Environments ........................................................................ 5 Introduction to the Part One: Philosophy Informing a Vision of the Curriculum ...................... 6 Constructivism and Individualizing Education ................................................................................... 8 Definitions .............................................................................................................................................................. 8 Continuity of Experience: Contrasting Realizations of a Constructivist Ideal in the Work of Montessori and Dewey .............................................................................................................................. 10 ‘Learning Pathways’ ......................................................................................................................................... 15 Justification for an Individualized vs. Uniform Curriculum ............................................................ 20 Self-Creation and Individualism .......................................................................................................... 22 Agency, Free Will, and the Practical Limits of Self-Creation ........................................................... 25 Three Philosophers Espousing Highly Romantic Visions of Self-Creation ................................ 28 Nietzsche .............................................................................................................................................................. 28 Foucault ................................................................................................................................................................ 30 Emerson ................................................................................................................................................................ 31 Critique of Foucault, Emerson, Nietzsche ......................................................................................... 33 Narrative Identity and Self-Creation .................................................................................................. 46 Critique of Narrative Identity as a Construct ........................................................................................ 52 PART II: THE SYSTEM ......................................................................................................................... 55 For Orientation: An Overview of the System ................................................................................... 55 Current Work and Extant Technologies Which Inform this Thesis ............................................ 57 Learning Objects in Learning Maps: Narremes in the Narrative ................................................ 60 Introduction to Learning Objects and Learning Management Systems ..................................... 60 Accessibility of the Learning Object in the Age of the Web ............................................................. 64 vi A New Metaphor: Learning Objects as Narremes ................................................................................ 65 An Overview of Narrative Elements in the System ......................................................................... 66 First: Biography of Exploratory Learning ............................................................................................... 67 Second: Themes and Goals ............................................................................................................................ 68 Third: Themes Building into Goals, Building into Narratives, Building into Identities ....... 68 Learning Maps ......................................................................................................................................... 70 The Genealogical Learning Map: An Illustration ................................................................................ 72 Choosing Elements for Inclusion in Learning Maps ...................................................................... 81 Recombining Learning Objects into Stories: The Second Functionality of this Tool .............. 83 Identifying and Drawing Out “Themes” or “Subnarratives” ........................................................... 83 Non-Linear Elements of Concept Maps – To Harness for the Imposing of “Revisionist” Narratives ............................................................................................................................................................ 84 Goal-Setting Aids and Management of Goals .................................................................................... 87 Goals as Narrative ............................................................................................................................................. 88 Self-Set Goals and the Psychology of Ownership ................................................................................. 91 Projected Identities as Meta-Goals with a Narrative Component ............................................... 94 Mechanisms for Ensuring Rigor .......................................................................................................... 98 Ethical Teacher Intervention .................................................................................................................... 100 Technologies to Facilitate Guidance, Instruction, and Collaboration in the Context of a Radically Individualized Curriculum ................................................................................................ 104 A Tension ........................................................................................................................................................... 105 Possibilities of Data Mining ....................................................................................................................... 107 Profiling and Advising Students Based on Data ................................................................................ 108 Matching Students with Learning Objects of Various Kinds ........................................................ 110 Matching Students with Instructors ...................................................................................................... 111 Learning Groups and Matching with Similarly-Minded Peers .................................................... 113 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 115 References ............................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. vii List of Figures Figure 1. A sample visualization of a ‘learning pathway’………………………………………………….74