Moving beyond with Maxine Greene: Integrating curriculum and consciousness

provocative exchange: “Who am I? ” she asked, and looked around, then answered herself: “I am who I am not yet. ” (Pinar 1998, 1). This statement by Greene is the substance, I believe, of her philosophical concept of education as portrayed in an article titled “Curriculum and Consciousness ” (1997). Greene demonstrates that the integration of curriculum and consciousness in education can involve continuous growth and rediscovery for us. Green’s conceptions of curriculum and consciousness interconnect, I feel, with the works of Madeleine Grumet, Paulo Freire, and Fritjof Capra, and a visit with their communities of thought invites further interpretation for Greene’s educational philosophy. In “Curriculum and Consciousness ” (1997) Greene transports the reader to primordial consciousness in early childhood, when awareness begins to develop, and consciousness becomes an automatic response as a result of basic authoritarian or environmental influences. Precognitive realities develop early too, as “…the world is constituted prior to the ‘construction of cognitive structures.’ ” (1997, 140). Consciousness is “always consciousness of something ” (140), something in relation to the world, a reflecting of past, present, and hopefully, future experiences. It is comprised of