What is currere?
Currere is an approach to curriculum studies that treats education as a lived, autobiographical process. Rather than viewing curriculum only as content to be delivered, currere invites scholars and educators to examine their own educational experience as a source of insight, using it to better understand teaching, learning, and the formation of the self within schooling.
The concept was introduced by William F. Pinar, whose foundational work established currere as a method of autobiographical curriculum inquiry and helped shape the reconceptualist movement in curriculum studies. Pinar's contribution remains the central reference point for scholars working in this tradition, including within AAIDES.
Welcome to the AAIDES Currere Studies Special Interest Group.
This group has been established as a space for conversation, exchange and collaboration among those working with currere and related approaches to autobiographical and experiential curriculum inquiry.
Currere has developed across different national, cultural, institutional and intellectual contexts. One purpose of this group is to create opportunities for members to encounter that range of work, share developing ideas and consider how currere might continue to contribute to curriculum studies.
To begin, I warmly invite members to introduce themselves and briefly tell us:
- Where and in what context you work
- How currere relates to your teaching, research or study
- What questions or projects currently interest you
- And what you might value from this group
The early direction of the SIG should be shaped by the interests and contributions of its members. Once we have a clearer sense of the community, we can consider modest initial activities such as online conversations, work-in-progress discussions, reading groups or opportunities to share current research.
I look forward to learning more about your work and developing the group together.
Kevin Smith
Convenor, Currere Studies SIG
Dr. Kevin Smith is a curriculum theorist and educational researcher concerned with how curriculum becomes lived, participatory and meaningful experience. His work draws on curriculum theory, particularly reconceptualist curriculum studies and philosophy of education, to examine the relationships among curriculum, agency, dialogue, place and educational experience.
A central strand of his research is currere, an autobiographical method of curriculum theorising, which he has extended through ambulare, a walking-based approach centred on slowness, embodiment, emplacement and the natural world. He also researches curriculum reform and realisation across Welsh and international contexts, alongside radical and dialogic pedagogy and participatory approaches to education.
His current book, Pedagogy of the Dungeon Master: Reconceptualizing Curriculum as Worldbuilding, Facilitation, and Storytelling, draws on Dungeons & Dragons and the practice of Dungeon Mastering to rethink how educative experiences are planned, inhabited and brought into being.
Member Introductions
Be the first to introduce yourself and start the conversation.
Upcoming Activities
Online conversations, reading groups, and work-in-progress sessions.
Resources
Readings, references, and shared work from the community.
Join Currere Studies
Interested in autobiographical curriculum inquiry and currere? Register with AAIDES and introduce yourself to the group.
Register & Join