Students as Designers of Their Own Life Curricula

The Reconstruction of Experience in Education

By:
Vincent Izuegbu, Wells Preparatory Academy Chicago, Illinois

Published 2011

The idea of life curriculum came as a result of looking back at my past in relation to my studies in curriculum. I learn by reconstructing my past in the present to influence my future, and students, indeed everyone, can as well do so. Constructing a curriculum of life is also a continuous process of building, renewing, refining, and adapting self-defining values, ideals, beliefs, ideas, ethics,
and convictions to the growing changes in the environment. Students obtain different curricula from various environments. Through a methodic process of thoughtful deliberation, students can reconstruct and integrate the different curricular experiences of their lives. To help students achieve this, there is the need to broaden the conception of curriculum to include life experiences in a way that interweaves school and outside school curriculum in the classrooms. And this can transform curriculum into a process of constructing life.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments. Summary. Foreword, William H. Schubert 1 My Life Experiences 2 Preliminary Considerations 3 Curricular Considerations from Which Life Curriculum Evolves 4 Life Curriculum 5 Reconstruction of Experience in Education Through Thoughtful Deliberative Action 6 Life Curriculum Revisited 7 Implications in Four Modern Philosophical Epistemologies for Life Curriculum 8 Precolonical Africa as a Basis for Life Curriculum 9 Conclusions 10 My Publications Revisted References, Author Index, Subject Index