Improvising the Curriculum: Alternatives to Scripted Schooling

Equipped with cultural tools like cell phones, computers, and video cam­eras, youth today 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 standardized, placeless forms of scripted curriculum. This volume argues for improvisation as an approach to curriculum that recognizes the fundamentally creative aspects of learn­ing that are often marginalized in communities of disadvantage. It provides interesting possibilities for schools that are working hard co keep up with technological, economic, and cultural change and argues for an improvised middle ground between structure and creativity.

This volume outlines a two-year research project performed in a Cana­dian middle school, where school staff used student filmmaking as a way co expand teachers' conceptions of literacy. It analyzes the response of students, teachers and parents as well as the student teachers that brought the program to the school. The improvisational techniques used while making the films paved the way for larger a broader analysis of curricular improvisation.