The Art of Appreciation as Curriculum

Abstract

In the words of Hooks, education should be a practice of freedom, one that starts with care, not control. Hooks (2014) teaches us, “Love is an action, never simply a feeling”. Schubert (1986) asserts, “Appreciation, in curriculum terms, involves entering into the lived meanings of others.” Pinar (2015) taught us that curriculum is a “complicated conversation.” It is a space where the personal meets the political, where memory and imagination shape what and how we learn. To appreciate, in this sense, is to engage fully with students, with texts, with histories that hurt and heal. Through my doctoral journey, I’ve learned that appreciation is not abstract. It lives in the daily acts. It is an act of listening. Acts of care between curricular acts. And they deserve recognition. It means valuing knowledge that is not always cited but always lived. It means listening beyond compliance. Appreciation as a curriculum is not a unit to teach, it’s a way to live, to remember, to reimagine.