Curriculum Cartography

Rachel Ellaway, PhDThe University of Edinburgh and

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine

metaphor

“metaphorical thought is unavoidable, ubiquitous and mostly unconscious ... our conceptual systems are not consistent overall, since the metaphors used to reason about concepts may be inconsistent … we live our lives on the basis of inferences derived via metaphor” (Lakoff & Johnson, afterword to second edition 2003, p272-273)

“the use of a metaphorical perspective … challenges the objective literal understanding of the world around us. In particular it challenges the way we perceive our actions, our tools, our motives and our values. The use of metaphor as a means to explore otherwise complex human-oriented phenomena [provides] insights and yield[s] understanding of these phenomena that traditional objectivist views cannot provide” (Ellaway, R. 2006 PhD Thesis)

Mapping andCartography

AbstractionTemporalitySpecificityNarrativeDetail

?AbstractionTemporalitySpecificityNarrativeDetail

?AbstractionTemporalitySpecificityNarrativeDetail

?AbstractionTemporalitySpecificityNarrativeDetail

Map making

Cartography or mapmaking: visual representations of underlying data that is in turn an abstraction of properties of a real world phenomenon.

The process of abstraction and representation requires the cartographer to make pre-emptive decisions about what is to be included and what left out, and what significance is to be given to different aspects:

“a map is a show, a representation. What is shown is real, but that does not imply any completeness or entail any absence of choice in its selection and representation” (Black, 1997)

Mapmaking in general is inherently partial and political, and curriculum mapmaking is not excluded from these influences.

Black, J. (1997). Maps and Politics. London, Reaktion Books Ltd.

Curriculum mappingA metaphor for many different kinds of activity - mapmaking and cartographic

associations

At least three distinct perspectives (Alcock-Strangeway, 2006):

• post-hoc records of what actually took place

• projected descriptions of what is expected to happen

• time independent representations of content and sequencing

Harden suggests that these (and other perspectives) might be expressed as ‘windows’ on a common underlying dataset (2001)

Grounding: Edinburgh (medics and vets), Scottish Doctor outcomes (and x-maps), MEDINE, MedBiq CWG

CC as part of emerging discipline of “education informatics”

Implications for S&S … use cases, use cases, use cases, use cases …

MedBiquitous Competencies WG (MCWG) and IEEE WG

Alcock-Strangeway, M. (2006). Curriculum Cartography. 2006.Harden, R.M. (2001). "AMEE Guide No.21: Curriculum mapping: a tool for transparent and authentic teaching and learning" Medical Teacher 23(2): 123-137.

MCWG Use Cases1. Implementing an external learning outcomes framework:

design, implementation, tagging, searching, audit and reporting, maintenance

2. A school develops its own outcomes and objectives framework

3. Coding and sharing a common curriculum framework

4. Cross-mapping frameworks

5. Cross-mapping curricula

6. Tracking student competencies

7. Transcripts and credentials

Curriculum CartographyCC as representation, inclusion and exclusion,

exercising power, defining a common reality

We need to deconstruct CC …

Curriculum cartographic cycle:

planning education politics auditing

epistemology

semantics

CC as a planning activity

What will we do? How, when and where will we do it?

CC as scheduling, timetabling, resource planning

S&S models:

• Content descriptors

• Descriptors and models of time, location and identity

• Tracking of resource use (physical space, faculty time)

• Coverage of outcomes

CC as epistemology

What is in/out of the syllabus?

How is the syllabus assembled into a curriculum?

CC as high level models, blocks, sequences

S&S issues:

• Linked to syllabus requirements and rules

• Subject headings and relationships

• Supersets and subsets of subjects

• Blocked models and their sequencing

CC as a semantic activity

Values, relationships, weighting, language

CC as cultural and communal artefacts

S&S issues:

• Issues of domain language and significance

• Translation between domains or into a super domain

• Markers of significance and domain provenance

• Boundary objects across communities of practice

CC as an educational activity

What is taught, what is learnt, what is assessed?

For students and teachers …

CC as orientation, location, trajectory,

S&S issues:

• Cognitive and competence modeling

• Ownership and individual/collective tensions

• Probabilistic relationships between plan and actuality

• Tracking individuals and compliance/success

• Objectives outcomes/competencies

CC as a political activity

What is ‘in’ and what is ‘out’

Whose language and symbols, whose values and ideas

Negotiation of power and control, identity and autonomy

S&S issues:

• My map, your map, our map

• Provenance and authority

• Democracy and totalitarianism

• Individualism and collectivism

• Dissent and compliance

CC as an auditing activity

What is happening? (how much, when , where, who)

What did we do or deliver? What did the students get?

CC as tracking, reporting,

S&S issues:

• Periodicity and state change

• Tracking, recording, events and signifiers

• Global and specific modeling

• Standards and benchmarks

• Match/compliance to third party frameworks

Implications

Curriculum mapping/cartography is not uniform and is not simple

Our differing approaches need to be analysed and clarified

S&S for CM/CC need to be based on use cases and narratives that cover their different applications

S&S need to be aligned to the purposes and functions they serve

Where next?

S&S need clearer and more critical approaches to CM/CC

R&D in this area needs to be conducted as a matter of urgency in order to better understand what it is we are doing (or are trying to do) and what we need from CM/CC

planning education politics auditing

epistemology

semantics

Curriculum Cartography

Rachel Ellaway, PhDThe University of Edinburgh and

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine