An Existentialist Curriculum of Action: Creating a Language of Freedom and Possibility

by Shaireen Rasheed

Overview

This book contextualizes Maxine Greene's educational pedagogy within an existentialist tradition. By drawing on the works of Jean-Paul Sartre, Paulo Freire, and Merleau-Ponty, Professor Rasheed analyzes how Greene's work represents an advance in existentialist discourse via her interpretation of concepts, such as choice, freedom, and possibility within an educational setting.

The aim of this work is to create an "existentialist curriculum of action" that is grounded in a vision of leadership. Educators, teachers, students, policy makers, and curriculum theorists can implement this critique as part of an emancipatory and transformative pedagogy. By developing an ethical language of existential possibility, Professor Rasheed creates a space where discourse explores the various intersections of gender, race, class, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation, which coexist within a participatory definition of democracy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761835912
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	12/20/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	90
Product dimensions:	5.82(w) x 8.99(h) x 0.35(d)

About the Author

Shaireen Rasheed (Ph.D., Columbia University) is an Associate Professor in Philosophical Foundations of Education at C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Acknowledgements Part 2 Introduction Chapter 3 Sartre and Greene: Contextualizing Freedom in Action Chapter 4 The Existential Concept of Freedom for Maxine Greene: The Influence of Freire and Merleau-Ponty on Greene's Educational Pedagogy Chapter 5 A Pedagogy of Pluralism: The Literary Reality of Lived Worlds Chapter 6 The Limits of Universality: Delimiting the Standardized Curriculum Chapter 7 Conclusion: Implications for Educators: Creating Curriculums of Action in the Classroom Part 8 Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Shaireen Rasheed's engaging book carries forward the existentialist tradition in educational thinking into our new century. Proceeding from the work of Maxine Greene, the leading representative of this tradition, Rasheed introduces us to this work via an examination of its philosophical roots and its affinities with Freire's critical pedagogy. She then extends Greene's thinking into the field of curriculum theory, developing out of its implications a language that emphasizes a curriculum's humanizing possibilities. Anyone interested in how education's humanistic values may be defended with the help of existentialist arguments will be likely to find much of interest in Rasheed's discussion.

René V. Arcilla

The book provides exercises for educators and their students to help them understand how various influences – political, social and economic – affect the way they teach and learn. With this knowledge, regardless of the regimented curriculum and testing, they still can have the freedom to think for themselves and to come to their own conclusions.

Long Island University Magazine

Shaireen Rasheed explores the richness of Sartre's "freedom in action" as that notion is developed philosophically and pedagogically in the work of Maxine Greene. Drawing upon Greene's contributions to curriculum discourse, the works of selected curriculum theorists, and personal practice, Rasheed provides justification for an "existential curriculum of possibility," affirming education for freedom in a pluralistic world where the quest for democracy, dignity, and diversity can be encouraged. This creative, inspiring integration of existentialism and curriculum theory translates a challenging philosophy into a compelling call to educational action.

Linda O'Neill

[Rasheed]... provide[s] a conceptual and philosophical framework for looking behind the screen of the teleological givens within instrumental curriculum and to explore the possibilities of a curriculum of action... This framework, which is an existentialist perspective, implores educators to look past the givens associated with neoliberalist concepts of education that are said to produce degrees of passive compliance to the possibilities associated with a curriculum which fosters critical spirit? a spiritwhich, once deployed, seeks possibility, hope and change. If you are interested in freedom and emancipation, and how it relates to curriculum within our teaching institutions, Rasheed provides an easy to read, yet conceptually grounded journey...This book is particularly useful for beginning educators in the sense that it will prompt them to examine the platform upon which they make their day-to-day curriculum and teaching decisions. It is also useful for experienced educators whose reading of the textwill cast them into a space where they can re-explore that which influenced them to be(come) educators in the first place.

International Journal Of Pedagogies and Learning - Mark Tyler

Shaireen Rasheed's engaging book carries forward the existentialist tradition in educational thinking into our new century. Proceeding from the work of Maxine Greene, the leading representative of this tradition, Rasheed introduces us to this work via an examination of its philosophical roots and its affinities with Freire's critical pedagogy. She then extends Greene's thinking into the field of curriculum theory, developing out of its implications a language that emphasizes a curriculum's humanizing possibilities. Anyone interested in how education's humanistic values may be defended with the help of existentialist arguments will be likely to find much of interest in Rasheed's discussion.

René V. Arcilla

[Rasheed]... provide[s] a conceptual and philosophical framework for looking behind the screen of the teleological givens within instrumental curriculum and to explore the possibilities of a curriculum of action... This framework, which is an existentialist perspective, implores educators to look past the givens associated with neoliberalist concepts of education that are said to produce degrees of passive compliance to the possibilities associated with a curriculum which fosters critical spirit— a spirit which, once deployed, seeks possibility, hope and change.
If you are interested in freedom and emancipation, and how it relates to curriculum within our teaching institutions, Rasheed provides an easy to read, yet conceptually grounded journey...This book is particularly useful for beginning educators in the sense that it will prompt them to examine the platform upon which they make their day-to-day curriculum and teaching decisions. It is also useful for experienced educators whose reading of the text will cast them into a space where they can re-explore that which influenced them to be(come) educators in the first place.
— Mark Tyler, Academic Coordinator, Futher Education and Training, Faculty of Education, University of Southern Queensland, Australia

International Journal Of Pedagogies and Learning