ABSTRACT
Just as in Maya Angelou's poem I know why The Caged Bird Sings, that small bunch of Aokian curriculum scholars sang loudly of things unknown, foreshadowing the release that accompanies non-instrumentalist ways of thinking in teaching and learning; for, before Aoki, curriculum studies in Canada was like a caged bird. It was Aoki who enabled those of us in that small group to sing about the worth of making curriculum and pedagogy trump the politics of instrumentalism both within our universities and in society in general. As educators, we need to continue to rage against the dying of the Aokian Canadian light in curriculum studies. We need to take up and enact Aoki's notion of inspiriting the curriculum. Inspirited curriculum is related to the wonderful insight that the material world is now forever infused with the breath of life, perfumed with spirituality.
