Education 3.3

• The school curriculum is something that has been constructed or put together, rather than simply existing
• Social construction of knowledge


  Knowledge and 'truth' are created by members of society in particular social situations or group settings, rather than simply existing 'out there'
• Constructionism


  • Knowledge is produced within the context of power relationships based on social class, gender and ethnicity. Truth is relative rather than absolute, depending on the setting or context.
• Michael F.D. Young's view


  Knowledge is socially constructed, not a 'given'. The curriculum is an area of sociological investigation rather than something that exists independently of people.
• Modernist thinking


  It is possible to generate valid knowledge about the social and natural worlds.
• Postmodernist view


  Knowledge is relative rather than absolute. Truth claims are relative to the context within which they were produced. Knowledge is partial, limited and biased and it is impossible to discover knowledge.
• Lyotard's view


  In the postmodern era, certainty has been replaced with uncertainty. There are now a multitude of answers, none of which can be shown to be definitively true or untrue. Knowledge is relative to time, place and culture.
• Postmodernists oppose any belief that there is a firm foundation to knowledge and any attempt to impose one version of the truth on people.
• Postmodernists question grand claims such as education can produce human potential, shared values, social solidarity, equality of opportunity and a just society.
• Critics argue that for all truth to be relative, there must be one truth that is not relative, and that objective knowledge is possible.
• Critics argue that postmodernists tend to ignore wider political and economic forces that shape the education system.
• High- and low-status subjects(young 1971b)


  Traditional academic subjects have more status than practical or vocational subjects. This is linked to how abstract the knowledge is, whether it involves written communication, individual assessment, and relevance to everyday life.
• Knowledge and power(7oung 1971b)


  People in positions of power will try to define what is seen as valued knowledge, how accessible it is to different social groups, and the accepted relationships between different areas of knowledge.
• Culture and the curriculum(Foster and Nicholls 2008)

  Textbooks in different countries tend to examine historical events from their own cultural, historic and geo-political perspective.
• Knowledge is socially constructed


  Foster and Nicholls' study supports this idea
• It would not be possible to completely remove the influence of culture in the production of knowledge
• Governments see education as linked to economic growth
• Curriculum reforms are often a response to economic demands, including global recessions or changes in the global market for labour
• Vocational courses attempt to make education fit the requirements of industry and to prepare students for future employability
• Knowledge is seen as a way of promoting economic growth and enabling countries to compete in a global economy
• There is more reliance on the intellectual capacities of workers than on factors such as natural resources or machinery and manual labour
• Ideas about the knowledge-based economy influence education policy around the world
• Investment in education is justified in terms of strengthening the economy in order to compete in international knowledge-based markets
• Expansion in higher education provision is seen as a way to increase the pool of skills available to employers and increase the employability of young people
• Education and training are key elements of the knowledge-based economy
• The expansion of higher education in many countries has created credential inflation because the demand for professional and managerial jobs is greater than the supply
• The curriculum was dominated by male interests and neglected issues that were of concern to women
• Hidden curriculum


  The messages that schools transmit to students covertly, without directly teaching them or spelling them out
• The hidden curriculum consists of ideas, beliefs, norms and values which are often taken for granted and transmitted as part of the normal routines and procedures of school life
• The hidden curriculum includes the unwritten and often unstated rules and regulations that guide and direct everyday school behaviour
• Examples of hidden curriculum messages

  • Importance of teamwork
  • Importance of individual competition
  • Importance of achieving the highest exam grades
  • Gender roles
• Some critics question whether the hidden curriculum is actually hidden at all today, given the amount of research on it
• Functionalist view of the hidden curriculum


  Transmission of society's core values and norms is one of the main functions of the education system, which helps to promote social order and stability
• In schools, young people are required to achieve as individuals, take exams on their own, and their individual achievements are carefully graded and assessed
• This prepares young people to value individual achievement and achieve as individuals in the wider society
• Critics argue that functionalist accounts oversimplify the relationship between schools and the wider society, and present students as passively accepting the messages of the hidden curriculum rather than resisting or challenging them
• Marxist view of the hidden curriculum

  The main job of schools is social reproduction - producing the next generation of workers who have been schooled to accept their roles in capitalist society
• Bowles and Gintis claim that schools in the USA socialise children to become subservient, well-disciplined workers who will submit to control from above and take orders rather than question them and this is done through hidden curriculum
• Schools reward conformity, obedience, hard work and punctuality, and penalise creativity, originality and independence
• Schools are also seen as transmitting ruling-class ideology - a false picture of society that justifies social inequality and the capitalist system