IMPROVISING THE CURRICULUM

Youth are called upon to improvise and construct themselves symbolically in a continuously connected world, yet new teachers and students are still expected to learn and deliver scripted curriculum. This volume argues for improvisation as an approach to curriculum that recognizes the fundamentally creative aspects of learning. It outlines a two-year research project performed in a Canadian middle school, where school staff used student filmmaking as a way to expand teachers’ conceptions of literacy, and analyzes the response of students and parents as well as the student teachers that brought the program to the school.