CO-CREATED CURRICULUM

I have emphasised in my courses, the need to deal with contemporary burning issues. But what I think are burning issues might well not be what my students think they are. Accordingly, in 2018, I sought and received university approval to experiment with a new form of student-directed learning. In my International Political Economy (IPE) course, I use the first third of the semester to establish the foundations of the discipline. The remaining two-thirds is based on issues which the students themselves feel are important. I produced a video outlining the idea and nominating 15 topics which I think are crucial today. The students then nominated another 14 topics in the first week of semester. They then voted online using a preferential system and selected the eight contemporary topics which they thought were of greatest significance. Seventy percent of the students voted in a non-compulsory ballot.

 

This kind of co-created curriculum has, I’ve found, significantly increased student engagement with the course. It also does what I believe is crucial – break down the sharp divide and bridge the gulf between teacher and student.

The great Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, made the broad point that:

"Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students."

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I agree. There is now significant research showing that both staff and students benefit from this approach.[1] I have found this to be very strongly the case. For students, their engagement with the course is increased because of a greater sense of “ownership” and a feeling of responsibility for their own learning. Students become, in a sense, teachers as well. 

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In choosing new topics, and so redesigning the course, students force me to study areas with which I have not previously been familiar. In 2018, amongst other topics, I was forced, for the first time, to research the IPE of the illegal drug market. This involved questions of state stability and failure, globalisation and world trade, state corruption and markets which have similarities to other markets but also systematic different. This was fascinating for me and helped to maintain my own enthusiasm – something crucial if it is to become transmitted to the students. Similarly, I am now keeping up with the detail of the US – China trade war for the same reasons. The “teacher-student” contradiction is again partly broken down by forcing me to be a student in this way.

A video explanation, which I sent to my students, before this course began can be found below.