[SSC] SSC curriculum stuff -- to the wider group

Thu Jun 28 18:08:27 UTC 2012

Dear team,

I agree with Peter –
these are really useful curriculum notes.

I also agree with Peter’s point that: 

'concepts/themes
of culture, economy, power and society are too broad to act as suitable foci.
Gender, race, class, sexuality, age, the body are better. But why not just
start with issue-based themes, as also suggested - poverty, unemployment,
climate change, homelessness, debt, solidarity, etc?'

In case it''s of any help, I recall that a problem-focused
curriculum was one of two clear curriculum options suggested in the first
curriculum working group’s discussion paper, of Oct 2011. Peter Somerville suggests
climate change as a problem-focus - the Oct
2011 discussion paper noted some of the reasons why, for a problem-focus such as
climate change, a cross-disciplinary approach may also be essential:

‘The
World Social Science Report 2010 suggests… that current global challenges are
increasingly inter-connected, quick to spread globally and thus call into
question the traditional boundaries erected between academic disciplines.[1] ...Climate change
is one problem area confronting the world. Yet, although originally articulated
as a problem by the natural sciences, it seems increasingly important to
recognise that climate change can only be usefully understood and addressed in
inter-disciplinary terms, drawing upon the social sciences:
“one of the central questions
affecting how climate change is debated in public concerns the status—the
legitimacy, credibility, and saliency—of knowledge claims about climate change.
We need to understand how such knowledge comes into being and what types of
authority it carries when it circulates through society.[2]
For it seems that the concerns people
express on different sides of the climate changes debate, and their behaviours,
may betoken deeply held personal views and convictions that may have little to
do with “rationality”, let alone with natural science. According to climate
scientist Mike Hulme, for example, people’s attitudes to climate change are
often “a proxy for much deeper conflicts between alternative visions of the
future and competing centres of authority in society.”'[3]

I hope this helps.

All good wishes

Jonathan C.

[1]UNESCO, World Social Science Report
2010: Knowledge Divides (Paris: UNESCO, 2010), 11.

[2]Mike Hulme,
"Mapping Climate Change Knowledge: An Editorial Essay," Wiley
Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Climate Change 1, no. 1 (2010): 5.

[3]Mike Hulme, Why We Disagree About
Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), xxvii.

> Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:06:10 +0100
> From: psomerville at lincoln.ac.uk
> To: ZBendek at post01.lincoln.ac.uk
> CC: miketodd143 at gmail.com; pappaskelley at mac.com; botlenyanahughes at yahoo.co.uk; ssc at lists.aktivix.org; zbendek at lincoln.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: [SSC] SSC curriculum stuff -- to the wider group
> 
> I think these are really useful notes. I'm only sorry that I cannot
> attend on 30 June.
> 
> I think the issues identified here (soul/spirit, praxis, autonomy,
> critical learning, language and hidden curriculum) need to be integrated
> into the 'curriculum framework'. I also think this curriculum framework
> actually looks more like a framework for the SSC project as a whole.
> 
> I have made this point before but I also think that, at least when it
> comes to the learning process, we should be distinguishing only between
> teaching and learning, not between 'teacher-scholars' and
> 'student-scholars'. We will be expecting students to be taking on
> teaching roles and also expecting academics to take on learning roles. I
> think this is the key thing that distinguishes the SSC from other
> educational projects.
> 
> The point about language is a good one and I still feel that some of the
> language we use is not accessible enough or perhaps not clear enough.
> For example, why say 'problematics' when we could just say 'issues'? Or
> what do we really mean by being 'critical'? Zoraida and I decided that
> probably what we mean is 'increasing awareness of our journey and of how
> we move forward in that journey'. Or again: are 'content' and 'process'
> really two dimensions? I think not. What does it mean to 'become
> otherwise'? What are 'scholarly literacies'? I do not know the answers
> to these two last questions.
> 
> I think the concepts/themes of culture, economy, power and society are
> too broad to act as suitable foci. Gender, race, class, sexuality, age,
> the body are better. But why not just start with issue-based themes, as
> also suggested - poverty, unemployment, climate change, homelessness,
> debt, solidarity, etc?
> 
> I think the correct term is 'spirit' rather than 'soul'. 'Soul' refers
> to the inner world of perceptions, feelings and will, whereas 'spirit'
> is what links this inner world with the outer world of the body. Spirit
> is about hope and a sense of purpose and direction and possibly also of
> communion or solidarity, as in the expressions 'community spirit' and
> 'team spirit'. The spirit of the SSC is what drives us forward (hence
> the term 'inspiration'), enabling us to keep body and soul together.
> 
> Hope this helps
> 
> Pete
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Zoraida Mendiwelso-Bendek 
> Sent: 27 June 2012 15:01
> To: Peter Somerville
> Subject: FW: SSC curriculum stuff -- to the wider group
> 
>  
> 
> Fly
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sarah at socialsciencecentre.org.uk
> [mailto:sarah at socialsciencecentre.org.uk]
> Sent: 27 June 2012 14:49
> To: botlenyanahughes at yahoo.co.uk; Helen Farrell (Tourism);
> pappaskelley at mac.com; sara.motta at nottingham.ac.uk;
> hopkins668 at btinternet.com; Zoraida Mendiwelso-Bendek;
> sandiestrat at phonecoop.coop; davidmcaleavey at virginmedia.com;
> miketodd143 at gmail.com; Darryl Baker; Gordon Asher
> Subject: SSC curriculum stuff -- to the wider group
> 
> Hi all!
> 
> I'm very sorry if you have already received an email like this, but it's
> been pointed out that I was using the list of only people who came to
> the meeting on Friday and not the wider group of everyone who's
> expressed an interest in being involved in curriculum development (so to
> speak). Let's use this list to keep in touch and please forward to
> anyone you think is not on it but should be. Thanks in advance for your
> patience; steps in learning how to work together.
> 
> I'm sending a copy of the notes from last Friday's meeting, which I will
> also post to the SSC website for others to see, and a suggestion for
> Saturday's workshop. The latter has been revised after some really
> thoughtful comments from Zoraida and Peter Somerville, around (1) the
> importance of recommending a starting point in learners' expectations
> and social concerns, (2) the importance of clarifying what we mean by
> 'themes', and (3) the importance of highlighting questions about
> evaluation (of learning journeys and of our own practices of working
> cooperatively). 
> 
> I'm planning to send this out to the whole group by Friday, unless I
> hear otherwise, and it can be revised until then!
> 
> The workshop will involve smaller group discussions - does anyone else
> fancy facilitating or co-facilitating one?
> 
> All best,
> Sarah
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed 13/06/12 15:45, "Heather Hughes" botlenyanahughes at yahoo.co.uk
> wrote:
> > Sorry all; got Sarah's details wrong, so please use this list as the 
> > accurate one... Heather
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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