The enactment of a curriculum event.

Abstract

In this study a classroom teacher uses an interpretive frame borrowed from performance-centered folklore to describe the curricular, social, and managerial goals contained in a single curriculum event in her fourth grade classroom. Also described are the linguistic, social and pedagogical tools used to accomplish these goals. The study is informed by the literature on the enacted curriculum and supports the conclusion that curriculum and instruction must be considered a single unit in order to understand classroom lessons. Although data from a two year period are used to explain the classroom context, the study focuses upon one week of morning openings--an event termed "dailies" by the classroom community. The event is described by the teacher/researcher, the students in the classroom (through open ended writing exercises), and an experienced researcher on classrooms from the University of Arizona. Hymes's "heuristic set of components" is used to analyze the event. These components are setting, participants, ends, act sequence, key, instrumentalities, norms, and genres. Insights gained into curriculum events by viewing teaching as performance are described, and implications for teacher education are raised. Findings are discussed in terms of contribution to the literatures in curriculum and instruction and in performance-centered folklore.