Compose One’s Life Through College Education: Curriculum Studies as a Basis for Early Undergraduate Learning Experiences

Based on conversations, reading written commentaries, and classroom observations of the teaching of GSU undergraduates, often first generation and minority students, of Michael Baugh, Michael Czech, and Christopher Pugh, William Schubert will interview them as a panel about questions such as the following: How do you decide what to teach the students? How do you engage them in serious study and conversation? What pedagogical stories can you tell about these endeavors? What ideas do you draw from your experience in the Curriculum Studies Doctoral Program to reflect on and create these stories? The emphasis in the title on “composing a life” is taken from the brilliant book by that title authored by Mary Catherine Bateson, daughter of Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead. Not much has been done in curriculum studies literature about the college curriculum, although some has been done in higher education. William Schubert will briefly tell about a study he did on curriculum decision making among non-education faculty members at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Recently, he has published a theoretical essay that applies extant knowledge in the Curriculum Studies field to college curriculum in the following source, which will provide a basis for the panel conversation: Schubert, W. H. (2013). Multiple curricula in higher education. In J. DeVitis (Ed.), The college curriculum: A reader (pp. 91-108). New York: Peter Lang