Complicated Conversation as Curriculum in Language Teacher Education Amid Rapid Change

Abstract

As language teacher educators, we consider how times of flux bring opportunities for re-envisioning curriculum as conversation. We have found ourselves and our students to be situated at the nexus of tensions between sometimes fast-moving societal shifts and sometimes slow-moving changes in educational systems and institutions. One approach we have found for bridging the fast and the slow worlds is to rethink how we define curriculum. We draw from Pinar (1995) in re-envisioning curriculum as “complicated conversation” between teachers and students. Pinar and colleagues view curriculum as verb (currere, or “to run” in Latin) in which students' lived experiences – combined with planned materials – become the curriculum. In this teaching issues article, we explore how we as teacher educators have engaged our students (who are current, in-service teachers) in complicated conversation around recent moments of flux. We consider examples of how, in our English as a Second Language teacher-education courses, we have talked with teachers about two such moments: advocating for students amid recent global conflicts and navigating the advent of artificial intelligence. We underscore the idea that curriculum as currere requires a balance between being responsive and proactive.