Mapping or tracing? Rethinking curriculum mapping in higher education

Abstract

Curriculum mapping has been emphasized in recent curriculum innovations in higher education in the drive for global competitiveness. This paper begins by providing an outline of current discourses of curriculum mapping in higher education. Curriculum mapping is frequently associated with outcome-based learning and work readiness, and guiding the learner/traveler towards a “prosperous” future. Critiquing this perspective, this article explores other implications of maps (or mapping) in curriculums from a philosophical viewpoint, mainly derived from Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's account of mapping. The paper is intended to overturn the current “sedentary” thinking about curriculum mapping, and to encourage alternative perspectives on curriculum practices. The paper concludes with the view that, in Deleuze and Guattari's terms, current practices of curriculum mapping trace rather than map the ideas, and the paper highlights the value in seeing curriculum mapping rhizomatically.

Keywords:

• curriculum mapping
• curriculum map
• Deleuze
• Guattari
• rhizome

Acknowledgements

This research was sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, under project number 99-2410-H-019-001-.

Notes

1. Holding the same view as Jacobs, Hale (2008, xv) regards curriculum mapping as “a calendar-based process involving a teacher-designed curriculum, collaborative inquiry, and data-driven decision making.”