Curriculum Making, Reciprocal Learning, and the Best-Loved Self by Cheryl J. Craig

Author:Cheryl J. Craig
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030601010
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Bateson went on to say:…if there is to be a dialogue between civilizations, the learning must go in both directions, and each must go in both directions, and each must acknowledge the need to learn from the other. This means encouraging curiosity and respectful mutual knowledge without proselytizing. (Bateson, 2010, p. 250)

In my view, Bateson’s emphasis on mutuality is profound. Her words reminded me that we live “in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny,” as Martin Luther King, Jr., phrased it (King, 1964, p. 87). Both Bateson and King, Jr. return us to Dewey’s caution: “Sometimes…benevolent interest in others may be…an unwitting mask for an attempt to dictate to them what their good shall be, instead of an endeavor to free them so they may seek their good of their choice” (Dewey, 1916, p. 121). Bateson’s concept of reciprocity resonates with King’s stance and heeds Dewey’s warning. She advocates for respecting others in their own terms rather than elevating oneself as a better knower of their needs. She avoids “arrogant perception,” favoring “loving acceptance” instead (Lugones, 1990). Bateson’s conceptualization resonates with the goals of the Canada-China Reciprocal Learning Project around which this Palgrave Pivot book in the Intercultural Reciprocal Learning in Chinese and Western Education Series revolves. It also speaks to me as a researcher with a cross-national, cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural history of conducting school-based inquiries alongside teachers, principals, and children. Bateson, King, Jr., Dewey and the Canada-China Reciprocal Learning Project challenge me to think hard about what I have mutually learned from co-researchers (research participants and colleagues) with whom I have co-conducted studies. Bateson’s concept particularly causes me to reflect on the influences I have included in my published works, but it also reminds me to disclose learnings that have taken me longer to digest and to reveal issues with which I continue to wrestle. Dewey makes it clear that reciprocal relationships have nothing to do with privileging one’s own knowing and fulfilling one’s desires at others’ expenses while Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke eloquently about humanity’s inevitable interconnectedness. In this chapter, I take a different approach than I did in Chapters 1 and 2. This time I focus on what I have learned over time that matters. These reciprocal learning threads traverse my research program and collaborative research relationships. I discuss four interrelated topics, each having to do with my experiences of reciprocal learning:1.Reciprocal learning in my published scholarship

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