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you can answer that question honestly so that it feels right to you then
you’ll be ok for emergent curriculum.
While the road may have been “bumpy” Felicia knows that “it is worth it.”
Recognizing that emergent curriculum “won’t be embraced by all parents” it is
nonetheless an important endeavour. Looking back, Felicia realized that opposition was
limited to a small number of parents. Her advice to others is to focus on the supportive
parents to ascend up the mountain. Once you start climbing you can never return to the
theme approach—having tasted emergent curriculum, the lack of authenticity in a theme
approach makes the road less meaningful.
Conclusion.
For Felicia and her fellow research participants, emergent curriculum has led to a
teaching practice different than the one they implemented before (Malaguzzi, 1993).
Previous practice was starkly different with the adherence to a theme approach. Felicia’s
ascent up the mountain has produced an advocate of new images for both teachers and
children. The role is an expanded view of the teacher image. Felicia sees children and
teachers as co-constructors of the curriculum rather than how they were in the old image
where children are cast in as passive recipients of the prescribed theme approach. She is
joined by Rose and Layla as embodiments of this new image, with only Mary left on a
plateau of indecision.
Felicia’s inspiration from Peck (1978) and the message of craving a path from
negative experience can provide an example for Mary to continue the climb. Can Mary
overcome the obstacles and roadblocks impeding the path’s progress? Will emergent
curriculum guide her future practice? And from an even broader perspective, this