Reclaiming History and Memory: “Textures” of a Southern Curriculum of
Place
Objectives:
 Students will articulate definitions of “Curriculum of Place.”
 Students will identify connections among place, artifacts, and memory.
 Students will determine how understanding curriculum occurs within the
context of place.
Activities
 (Optional) Have song “Down Home” or “High Cotton” by Alabama playing
at beginning of class. Ask students whether they identify with songs such
as this that are strongly suggestive of place, such as “My Home Town” by
Bruce Springsteen. Point out that past (time indicators) also figure into the
songs, as does the pull of nostalgia.
 Introduction: Point out learning objectives.
 Artifacts: Share by pointing out that each artifact is steeped in place, is
connected in some way to it. Each object conjures place with sight and
memory—and this is part of the reason each is valued. (Other reasons
also reside in memory: the pull of nostalgia that elicits sentiment for
people and incidents past.) They represent place even as they are
situated in place, indicating the cyclical nature of nostalgia and past-inplace.
 Reading Selection: The Homeplace chapter of the dissertation is an
example of place writing. Provide handouts to participants. Ask, “What
feelings or questions might emerge from such narrative, both for the
author and audience?”
 “Place Cards”: Prepare cards with words that pertain to the chapter and
dissertation. Cards read: 1) place, 2) artifacts (from, of place), 3) memory
(lived experiences, life storying). Have students connect these with arrow
cards explaining each connection. The objective of this activity is to have
cards pointing from all cards to all cards, indicating the
interconnectedness of the three concepts. What is the significance of this
interconnectedness?
 Presentation: PowerPoint on curriculum of place; guided questions on
content. Include particularities of “Southern.”
Assessment
 Graphic Organizer: Guided completion of inner/outer circle organizer.
o Inner Circle: Definitions of place
o Outer Circle: Lived experiences in which you can recognize the
influence of place, one in which place has played a part. May
record on Post Its and then post on chart.
o Outer Square: Ways in which lived experiences of place might
contribute to the “complicated conversation” of curriculum.
 Understanding of Graphic Organizer Material: Measured by class
learning log entry or “entry” assignment, for example.
Extending the Discussion:
 Nostalgia (vintage—clothes, retro—styles and furniture)
 Autobiography; autobiographical writing/research. For examples, students
write a paragraph detailing a school experience that could only have taken
place in a certain locale…..
Note: Although this lesson could be adapted for graduate students, this session
was planned with undergraduates in mind.
EDUC 7752 Multiple Literacies in Schools and Communities
Case Study #1: Textures of Place Literacy
Objectives:
 Students will articulate the significance of place to literacy issues and
experiences for individuals, schools, and society.
 Students will determine how understanding literacy occurs within the
context of place.
Explanation of Objectives: You will conduct this mini-case study regarding the
idea of literacy and place and will meet the objectives by reflecting, researching,
and synthesizing. For this project you will 1) reflect upon formative experiences in
the development of your teaching identity that emerge in the interrogation of
influences of place, 2) research scholarship on pedagogies and curriculum of
place and on literacy, literacy issues, and multiple literacies to discover the
importance and impact of place on literacy issues (including literacy itself), and 3)
synthesize your reflections and findings by identifying connections among
curriculum/literacy and the cultural and social processes embedded in place that
have influenced you as educators. Note: the case study requires outside
readings; the research that may include the internet. You will present your study
in a poster session (display) held during class. I have attempted to provide you
with general directions for the development of your project in an effort to give you
space to be creative in how you meet the objectives.
Required components of the project:
 Place artifacts
 Your own “Place narrative”
 Reflective journal/notes
 Evidence of research that connects/ties together themes/concepts
 Clear pedagogical implications
Writing Prompts to Guide Place Narrative
The following questions are prompts to guide and help focus your reflection. You
should begin journaling in narrative and descriptive writing that addresses these
issues. You should not limit yourself to addressing these questions exclusively,
nor should are you expected to address each one. Remember, the focus is on
connecting self, place, and literacy/literacies:
a. What are some of your earliest memories of school? Can you describe
the school room, the teacher, other students, school activities?
b. As a young child, how did you feel while attending school; for instance,
comfortable, uneasy, bored, interested, etc.? How did you feel about
yourself as a child and student in light of these memories?
c. How would you describe the society of your early school years? What
societal and/or cultural factors stand out in your early memories? These
might include gender identity, racial identity, socioeconomic status, etc.
that surface as you write.
d. What is your own understanding of the concept(s) of “literacy”? What
literacy practices in homes, schools (particularly your own), and larger
society have you observed as an educator?
e. How have your own literacy practices been shaped by cultural markers
such as race, class, gender, religion, etc? What implications might this
have for your students, your pedagogy?
As you journal, use the following guidelines to shape your reflections into
a place narrative:
a. Write a free flowing autobiographical account of your early years and
early school years, etc., using writing prompts (above) if desired.
b. Then, examine that writing and look for evidence of influences of place,
i.e., locale/environment, as well as family structure, culture, etc. upon
those experiences. Record narratives in which you reflect upon
influences of place upon identity construction.
c. We will discuss these and all writings during lab/work time in class and
via email communication.
d. Next, formulate questions for yourself based on those two
aforementioned writings and discussions.
e. Look for thematic issues/codes around which to group those
influences.
f. Finally, compile a narrative in which you work toward answering your
own questions, thereby making connections among self, place, and
literacy/literacies.
Final Product:
Your project will be displayed in a session similar to those at professional
conferences. You will be expected to explain your work and answer any
questions that observers might have. I am intentionally keeping the guidelines
broad for what a final product should look like in order to allow for your creativity,
individuality, and professional analysis. I do expect a written narrative
accompanied by your reflective journal/notes. I envision a poster-type display
that will graphically illustrate connections you have made through your reflective
research.
Evaluation:
Your grade for the project will be based on 1) how well you have met the
objectives for the assignment, 2) the overall quality of your presentation,
including your ability to speak about your work.
I. Philosophy & Goals
This qualitative research project explores in narrative and descriptive form the lived
experiences of classroom teachers who demonstrate through their reflection a
consciousness of place. The project is focused on a study that links and traces the
influences of place, including race, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, and other
cultural and historical factors, to the identity formation of educators. The research will
be guided by the following questions: How do social and cultural elements of
place shape the teaching identity, dispositions, and practice of teachers? And, is
there a place literacy?
This research attends to the development of teaching identities that emerge in the
interrogation of influences of place. The goals of this project are as follows: 1) examine
formative experiences of teachers and allow participants to develop self understanding
of cultural and social processes that have influenced and continue to influence their roles
as educators; 2) create conversation about the progressive transformation of place
literacy; 3) identify connections between curriculum/literacy and the cultural and social
processes embedded in place that influence educators.
II. Significance
Place is crucial to understanding the self and society; the politics of place not only inform
identity construction, but also shape dispositions that influence pedagogical practices
and perspectives. Place, therefore, is central to curriculum studies that relate the
individual and the social. For the purposes of this research, place refers to more than a
regional geographic location. It is one “organizing idea for political, autobiographical,
racial, and gender issues in curriculum” (Pinar et al., 1995, p. 289). Place frames the
lived experience, not only as landscape, but as curriculum landscape upon which the
educational community might reevaluate the traditional understanding of the learning
environment (Slattery, 1995, p. 215). Finally, place is a metaphor for public space, as
envisioned by Green (1973, 1978, 1988), wherein human consciousness is situated to
contemplate democratic engagement, freedom. Greene states, “The effects of early
experience survive, along with the sedimentations of meaning left by encounters with a
changing world…The growing, changing individual always has to confront a certain
weight in lived situations, if only the weight of memory and the past” (p. 8-9). Participants
in this study are asked to confront the weight of memory and past insomuch as it
influences their identity, dispositions, and practices.
This research impacts the KSU academic community by maintaining the communitybased service learning focus of the Bagwell College of Education. The study explores
and celebrates diversity and the teacher/teacher educator’s role in local, national, and
global communities. In addition, it supports the mission of Kennesaw State University by
exploring, “cultural, ethnic, racial, and gender diversity” as a study that strives to embody
“the ideals of an open, democratic, and global society” (KSU Mission Statement). Our
student participants will benefit from self-understanding of cultural and social processes
that influence their roles as teachers.
This research will contribute to a growing body of work on curriculum and pedagogy of
place through its unpacking of the identity constructs of teachers—as those constructs
inform and have been informed by s place. The significance of this research includes,
but extends beyond, the opportunities for self-reflection and self-understanding by the
participants concerning their personal and professional identities. The project also
significantly impacts teacher education—regionally, nationally, and globally—as it
explores, through the educators’ naming of themselves as subjects, how teachers
constitute their subjectivity by re-writing their pasts “as a way to make sense of the
present” (Munro 1998, p. 87). Finally, this project impacts students, scholars, and
practitioners of curriculum and pedagogy by situating teachers within a curriculum of
place. Emphasized in curricular and pedagogical studies for decades, the study of place
represents a growing trend in curriculum and pedagogy studies.
For example, Pedagogy of Place: Seeing Space as Cultural Education (2004) seeks to
understand place as a social aspect of education by focusing on place as the
embodiment of a “purposefully created space that is a creation and enactment of the
cultural and social conditions of participations” (p. 1). The editors note that the scope of
the consideration of space includes the teaching and learning environment, particularly,
the importance of space as place in shaping the educational experience. In other words,
the book attempts to expand place beyond geographical boundaries, reconceptualizing
space in the theorizing of a pedagogy of place. Of particular relevance to my own
research is under the general heading Place as Political and Historical. Chapter 8, by
David M. Callejo Perez, is “Identity, Literature, Schools, and Race: Southern Writers and
Literature as a Metaphor for Place,” visits the work of Southern authors and looks for
metaphorical representations of identity and curriculum. Perez explores the nature of
place in a “racialized curriculum” (p. 4) and employs Southern literature to locate the
space of connectedness among race, place, curriculum, and identity.
In his Foreword, William H. Schubert shifts the focus on place between pedagogy and
curriculum, a shifting he hopes will occur for the reader throughout the book. He
emphasizes the historical and ongoing need in the field to explore place, not only
insomuch as it concerns pedagogical practice, but also as it is aesthetically central to
curriculum studies. He writes,
While Understanding Curriculum (Pinar et al., 1995) was written almost ten years
ago, its subject index has 21 citations to place, indicating that place has been
emphasized in curriculum discourse for some time before that present volume.
Moreover, Kincheloe and Pinar edited a volume in 1991 called Curriculum as Social
Psychoanalysis: Essays on the Significance of Place, and one can find ample
references to public space in the corpus of Maxine Greene’s earlier writings (1965,
1973, 1978, 1988). This trend in the fields is precisely why I argue for the significance
and originality of Pedagogy of Place. (p. xv)