Curriculum theory
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Curriculum theory (CT) is an
Pinar defines the contemporary field of curriculum theory as "the effort to understand curriculum as a symbolic representation".[4]
The first mention of the word "curriculum" in
Faculty psychology
The school of faculty psychology, dominating the field from 1860-1890 in the United States, believed that the brain was a muscle that could be improved by the exercise of memorization (with comprehension a secondary consideration).[7] This supports the classical theory, which previously emphasized a method of teaching school subjects using memorization and recitation as primary instructional tools.[8] The theory itself claims three constituent faculties or power:
- the presence of will or volition, which enables human beings to act;
- the emotions, which pertains to the affections and passions that enable human beings to experience pleasure, pain, love, and hate; and,
- the intellect or understanding, which is the foundation of human rationality that enables him to make judgments and comprehend meanings.[9]
The idea is that education should expand the faculty of the mind and this is achieved through the key concepts of discipline and furniture.
The Herbartians
Different schools of Curriculum Theory developed as a reaction to the
The social efficiency movement
The publication of John Bobbitt's The Curricula in 1918 took the prevalent industrial revolutionary concepts of experimental science and social efficiency and applied them to the classroom. He believed that "curriculum must directly and specifically prepare students for tasks in the adult world".[12] He also believed that "human life...consists in the performance of specific activities. Education that prepares for life is one that prepares definitely and adequately for these specific activities."[13] From this idea, he suggested that curriculum was a series of experiences that children have in order to meet "objectives," or abilities and habits that people need for particular activities.
Other famous theorists of this movement included Edward L. Thorndyke (1874-1949), the father of experimental psychology in education, Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915), with his theory of scientific management, David Snedden, an educational sociologist who promoted social efficiency and vocational education, and W.W. Charters (1875-1952), a teacher educator who felt that "curriculum was comprised of those methods by which objectives are determined".[14] By using education as an efficiency tool, these theorists believed that society could be controlled. Students were scientifically evaluated by testing (such as IQ tests), and educated towards their predicted role in society. This involved the introduction of vocational and junior high schools to address the curriculum designed around specific life activities that correlated with each student's determined societal future. The socially efficient curriculum consisted of minute parts or tasks that together formed a bigger concept.
The progressive reform movement
The progressive reform movement began in the late 1870s with the work of Colonel Francis Parker, but is most identified with John Dewey, and also John Mayer Rice and Lester Frank Ward. Dewey's 1899 book The School and Society is often credited with starting the movement.[15] These reformers felt that curriculum should be child driven and at the child's present capacity level. To aid in understanding the relationship of curriculum and child, Dewey described curriculum as, "a map, a summary, an arranged and orderly view of previous experiences, serves as a guide to future experience; it gives direction; it facilitates control; it economizes effort, preventing useless wandering, and pointing out the paths which lead most quickly and most certainly to a desired result". He envisioned "the child and the curriculum are simply two limits which define a single process".[16]
The Social Efficiency and Progressive Reform movements were rivals throughout the 1920s in the United States, with the 1930s belonging to the Progressives, or a curriculum combining aspects of both.[17] Ralph W. Tyler's Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction (1949) swung the pendulum of curriculum theory away from child centeredness toward more generalized behaviors.[18]
Tyler's theory was based on four fundamental questions which became known as the Tyler Rationale:
- What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?
- What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes?
- How can these educational experiences be effectively organized?
- How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?
The multicultural education movement
There is a racial crisis in
Sputnik and the National Defense Act
The launch of Sputnik in 1957 created a focus on science and math in the United States curriculum. Admiral Hyman Rickover accused the American public of indifference to intellectual achievement. "Our schools must return to the tradition of formal education in Western civilization-transmission of cultural heritage, and preparation for life through rigorous intellectual training of young minds to think clearly, logically, and independently".[29] The result was a return to curricula similar to the classicists of the 1890s and the modern birth of the traditionalists, with massive federal funding for curriculum development provided by the National Defense Act of 1958.
Reconceptualized curriculum
Joseph J. Schwab was instrumental in provoking curriculum developers to think beyond the traditionalist approach. In his 1969 paper "The Practical: A Language for Curriculum" he declared the curriculum field "moribund".[30] This, plus the social unrest of the 1960s and '70s stirred a new movement of "reconceptualization" of curricula. A group of theorists, including James Macdonald, Dwayne Huebner, Ross Mooney, Herbert M. Kliebard, Paul Klohr, Michael Apple, W.F. Pinar, and others, created ways of thinking about curriculum and its role in the academy, in schools, and in society in general.[31] Their approach included perspectives from the social, racial, gender, phenomenological, political, autobiographical and theological points of view.
Today
W.F. Pinar describes the present field "balkanized...divided into relatively separate fiefdoms or sectors of scholarship, each usually ignoring the other except for occasional criticism."[32] The top-down governmental control of educational curriculum in the Anglophone world, including the United States, has been criticized as being "ahistorical and atheoretical, and as a result prone to difficult problems in its implementation".[33] But there are theorists who are looking beyond curriculum as "simply as a collection of study plans, syllabi, and teaching subjects. Instead, the curriculum becomes the outcome of a process reflecting a political and societal agreement about the what, why, and how of education for the desired society of the future."[34]
See also
References
- ^ J.B. MacDonald (1971). Curriculum Theory. The Journal of Educational Research, 64, 5, 195-200.
- ^ H.M. Kliebard (1989). Problems of Definition of Curriculum. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 5, 1, 1-5.
- ^ J.J. Wallin (2011). What is ?Curriculum Theorizing: for a People Yet to Come. Stud Philos Educ, 30, 285-301.
- ^ W.F. Pinar (2004). Understanding Curriculum. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., p. 16.
- ^ Hamilton (1989) in W.F. Pinar (2004). Understanding Curriculum. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., p. 71.
- ^ W.F. Pinar (2004). Understanding Curriculum. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., p. 72.
- ^ ISBN 9780820426013.
- ISBN 9780415953375.
- ^ ISBN 9780765612687.
- ^ W.F. Pinar (2004). Understanding Curriculum. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., p. 75.
- ^ W.F. Pinar (2004). Understanding Curriculum. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., p. 78.
- ^ W.F. Pinar (2004). Understanding Curriculum. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., p. 97.
- ^ Smith, M. K. (1996, 2000) ‘Curriculum theory and practice' the encyclopaedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/b-curric.htm.
- ^ W.F. Pinar (2004). Understanding Curriculum. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., p. 75.
- ^ W.F. Pinar (2004). Understanding Curriculum. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., p. 90-101.
- ^ Dewey, J. (1902). The Child and the Curriculum (pp. 1-31). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
- ^ W.F. Pinar (2004). Understanding Curriculum. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., p. 116-142.
- ^ W.F. Pinar (2004). Understanding Curriculum. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., p. 148-151.
- ^ Banks, J. A. (1995). Multicultural education and curriculum transformation. The Journal of Negro Education, 64(4), 390–400
- ^ McGee Banks, C. A., & Banks, J. A. (1995). Equity pedagogy: An essential component of multicultural education. Theory into Practice, 34(3), 152–158
- ^ Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. JOURNAL OF TEACHER EDUCATION-WASHINGTON DC-, 53(2), 106–116
- ^ Jabbar, A., & Hardaker, G. (2013). The role of culturally responsive teaching for supporting ethnic diversity in British University Business Schools. Teaching in Higher Education, 1–13. doi:10.1080/13562517.2012.725221
- ^ Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Bloomsbury Publishing.
- ^ d'Souza, D. (1991). Illiberal education: The politics of race and sex on campus. Simon and Schuster
- ^ Banks, J. A. (1995). Multicultural education and curriculum transformation. The Journal of Negro Education, 64(4), 390–400
- ^ Sabry, N. S., & Bruna, K. R. (2007). Learning from the experience of Muslim students in American schools: Towards a proactive model of school-community cooperation. Multicultural Perspectives, 9(3), 44–50
- ^ Nieto, S. (1999). The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities. Multicultural Education Series. ERIC.
- ^ Jabbar, A., & Hardaker, G. (2013). The role of culturally responsive teaching for supporting ethnic diversity in British University Business Schools. Teaching in Higher Education, 1–13. doi:10.1080/13562517.2012.725221. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/15029/
- ^ H. Rickover (1959) in W.F. Pinar (2004). Understanding Curriculum. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., p. 154.
- ^ W.F. Pinar (2004). Understanding Curriculum. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., p. 176.
- The Struggle for the American Curriculum, 1893–1958. New York, NY: Routledge.
- ^ W.F. Pinar (2004). Understanding Curriculum. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., p. 5.
- ^ M. Priestley (2011). Whatever happened to curriculum theory? Critical realism and curriculum change. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 19, 2, 221-237.
- ^ J.C. Tedesco, R. Opertii, and M. Amadio (2014). The curriculum debate: Why it is important today. Prospects, 44, 527-546.