Curriculum Punishment in Teaching

Abstract

Milner advances curriculum punishment as a tool to describe how students may be harmed with policy and practice moves in education. Curriculum punishment pushes students and curriculum apart—where practices do not connect with and align with rich and robust diversity among young people, families, and communities. Although curriculum practices should honor, reflect, speak from the point of view of, deepen knowledge about, nuance myopic and mundane notions of, and enhance student identity, motivation, interests, and needs, curriculum punishment does the opposite by presenting one-dimensional, under-substantiated, and untruthful narratives and themes of individuals, communities, and nation-states. Tenets that explicate practices that Milner describes through curriculum punishment are (a) Avoiding, (b) Scripting, (c) Narrowing, (d) Distorting, and (e) Banning. Although some of these practices are beyond the control of teachers, teachers are encouraged to Study, Collaborate with others about, Reflect on, Advocate against, and Transform (SCRAT) Curriculum Punishment.