I would like to think there is another way. There will be boxes to tick, hoops to jump, and protocols to follow, but why can't this be the merest baseline and then the informal, the co-developed, the completely student driven be integrated as a backbone.

An analogy: it is possible for the curriculum to provide the ground floor of a structure, and yes, it has walls and a floor, and maybe even some requisite rooms - but it is up to you (and me) whether you build a high rise tower, a castle, a series of underground tunnels, a hydroponics lab, an airport, or a ladder to the moon.

We don't operate WITHIN a policy environment; it exists within our environment.

The thought in my head is that curriculum, whether praxis, co-developed, open, still has the quality of something that you submit to, a small or large guidance-principle, shaping towards... that you agree to exist. You are on a path, or have a destination, or are part of a group endeavour. It is not only growth without markers. The markers are what people allow for.

Sometimes it is magic to allow elements of the growth without goal into the curriculum, and if learners are allowed to reflect on and integrate this into other learning, they can take ownership of their directed learning (directed by them or others) in very new and meaningful ways.

not behind closed doors. Teaching in the open. For some this is revolutionary (literally) and also a huge personal and pedagogic challenge.

Those who breathe openness need to remember that there are others who do not understand and perhaps have never conceived of teaching in this way. (just saying there is an educational leap for teachers- and sometimes people assume teachers know the best way, or at least know what they are doing because they have thought it out. It is not always the case)

to me this says - looking for understanding rather than facts

ok have to link to my video about how learning is not a recipe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alw8k8TbzNU

I like to blend the two. Reading the page on informal education, it seems to stress learning through life. I type in my formal office, sitting on a bean bag. If in education my goal is to prepare you to go forward in a life of music - performance and education, then we should definitely include in our learning those very situations you will find. So there may be a ball gown and dinner jacket session of performance, and there will also be the travel in the car to get to the gig, and the session in the practice room. Again, it has to do with the skills, thinking, situations, and purpose of the how, what, why of learning.

this should be in bold. just because!

I had something like this in school. When I was 11 there was a group of 5 of us who were puled out and had special classes and we had lessons in critical reasoning and problem solving. Why on earth were we the only ones of a class of 60? -that's rhetorical, but not without meaning- ALL people should have the chance to learn about learning.

ALL of this is needed. If we start to think of becoming whole learners (I was thinking of all sorts of words- self-directed, using agency, .. but it is about all the bits - and it IS necessary to know the functional facts. The canon cannot be dismissed completely, but that is not the learning. The learning happens through the doing and becoming, and sometimes there are tangible products.

I think this might call for a blogpost.

I'm annotating this as a little provocation, but also to show how to use the annotation tool.

I'd ask is learning always completely planned? and is the guiding on purpose? What if I'm exploring? I may have a goal, but not know exactly how I'm going to get there. As a teacher, I may not tell the student everything in the plan - as they may want or need a different route and I know I cannot anticipate everything.

Guided, yes. Sometimes by chance. If I bump into something (real or metaphoric) it guides me. Whether that was intended is another story.

It is odd to think that the origins of 'curriculum' are about running when so often in learning what people need to do is to stop and think.

This word just gives me shivers (not good ones) can it not be something like 'primary'?

One last thought, had this morning while running... is it worth putting a note at the end as to who we are? Maybe it is something you'd like to leave out, but I think there is a sort of parallel with the disparate nature of all of us, and the isolation that sometimes comes with academia (or maybe with any job?) and how we have come together... another example of different representation, equal footing, and acceptance.

commas missing here so it makes sense- I don't think the words should be edited:

move tentatively, move forward, wondering

gives it that tentativeness, with the pauses.. (maybe that's just me because I hear reading (spoken) in my head)

<3

love these. (just saying)

Is it 'that' first step (of your proposing what characteristics look like) or is the article 'this' first step - of collating and contextualising within a body of research. (Amazingly well done BTW!)

If it is 'this' first step, the the where do we go from here question makes more sense and is a direct call to others.

this is your (our ! :) ) proposal of going forward. You might even consider putting the themes as numbered or bulleted points so readers can easily begin to organise, orient, and align thoughts to and with them.

I would expand on this - perhaps here with a few words, but elsewhere in terms of invitation, welcome, encouragement, and engagement. Here I'd suggest Geoffrey help- as on the site there are also others, and a cross section of teachers. What is noteworthy, is that the voices are equal of all, and the posting is colourblind/bias-blind. People are people, all with voices heard, respected, and critiqued by different people or different ages, experience, perspective - equally.

I'd argue there can be flow in the achieving as well as the attainment. As a musician, for example, it is not about 'completing' the concert, but being in it. That's where - even though you are existing (and even creating) unfolding rhythm, you can get lost in space and time.

great word, great meaning

so much continues to change - the students for one are always changing and that is a huge variable. What works with one may not with another

I have experienced this and it can be incredibly frustrating to allow students to discover the links instead of insisting they see them immediately.

I wonder if there is a continuum so when you are just setting out on an instrument, there is much more 'separate' learning, or 'learning' - setting it up - 'in advance'

He's not saying he doesn't practise them at all...

beautifully stated

I think it's important to strive beyond what is possible - looking outside of the expected acceptance to encourage that dreaming. Optimism is beyond reality. Only reaching for the possible imposes bigger limits than we know -

translation- it isn't going to be easy if you are already part of the bureaucratic machine that is often found within formal education- going to take effort and personally challenge you, but it is so worth it.

love this. It is very familiar to me

I wondered about the use of this word (pluralism) on p3, now makes sense.

this is about self-efficacy - doesn't have to be 'student' capabilities - can insert any name, or 'your'

this is key. Starts with each of us and really, we must be willing before anything else of meaning happens.

start with what they can dream, what they can wish. no limits.

Then there's a reason and drive to find a way- to seek the how, the skills, the connections, and to make it happen

and embedding hope. There needs to be imagination for people to shape their place in life, as the future and it's possibilities are unwritten. People need to be able to create

I love this.

I aspire to being a strong poet :)