Influences on the curriculum Flashcards
What is the social construction of knowledge
All societies develop beliefs about what is worthy of being known, knowledge is not something that is simply out there.
Weber (1922) views on the social construction of knowledge
Weber (1922) argued that all societies develop beliefs about what ‘is worthy of being known. This suggests that knowledge is not something that is simply ‘out there, waiting to be discovered, taught and learnt.
One context for understanding this idea is to look at how knowledge is socially constructed in education systems. What kinds of knowledge should be taught, to whom and for what purpose? This involves examining ideas relating to power and control through the structure, content and development of the school curriculum.
One way to do this is by locating the development of education systems and the factors that have influenced what is taught, and how, within them
Althusser ideological state apparatus
Althusser noted that cultural reproduction involves the passing down of ruling class ideologies (political and economic domination – dominant ideology) from one generation to the next. The education system hence is an ideological state apparatus (ISA), and teachers are agents of ideological control because they try to get students to accept their likely future social positions.
Ways in which the education system acts as an ideological state apparatus:
Formal learning teaches students the skills & knowledge required in the workforce.
More knowledge is only accessible as you go higher up the academic ladder, and this is because the curriculum is restricted.
Some subjects have a higher value than others. In the UK curriculum, subjects such as Maths, Science and English are given higher value than other subjects.
Through the education system, children learn to be obedient to authority because this is needed in the workplace.
Education qualifications allow for the commodification of knowledge by putting an economic value on them.
Young
Young argues that what’s considered knowledge is socially constructed from a biased viewpoint with a biased purpose.
How schools organize knowledge:
Categorisation - Categorising knowledge into subjects allows for control over what students learn and how they learn it.
Gatekeeping - Knowledge is gatekept by teachers, exam boards, and politicians, and they determine when to reveal certain knowledge, and who to reveal it to.
Credentialism - Knowledge is validated in a quantifiable way through exam qualifications.
Young believes that students’ knowledge is assessed in a way which appears objective, fair, and meritocratic.
Young also argues that the school curriculum reflects the interests of the ruling class in the way that knowledge is selected (only certain subjects are included) and stratified (categorised into subjects).
According to young how schools are organised reflects the idea that knowledge can be:
-Young (1971) further argued that what counts as educational knowledge always has an ideological dimension. Knowledge is socially constructed from a particular viewpoint and for a particular purpose. How schools are organised reflects the idea that knowledge can be:
-Categorised in terms of ‘subjects’ that have their own unique body of knowledge. This implies that one subject is not relevant to another. The ability to categorise knowledge in terms of both subjects and subject content is a powerful ideological tool. It allows control over what is being learnt, how it is learnt and how students can demonstrate (validate) their learning.
-Presented in particular ways through a formal curriculum. Knowledge is thought of (conceptualised) as something to be given, not discovered. It is protected by gatekeepers, such as teachers, exam boards and politicians, and learning is a process of gradual revelation. Teachers not only choose when to reveal certain types of knowledge, they also choose which students will receive that knowledge.
Validated through examinations. Knowledge must be continually assessed and evaluated to ensure that students reach approved levels. This leads to ‘credentialism’ - knowledge is only valid if it can be quantified in the form of qualifications. It also leads to the idea that certain types of knowledge have greater validity than others.
How does the curriculum reflect the interest of the ruling class according to Young
-The school curriculum reflects the interest of the ruling class in the way that knowledge is selected and arranged
1)Selected - This involves decisions about which subjects appear on the curriculum and the content of each subject.
2)Arranged - this involves questioning things such as why theoretical knowledge is considered superior to practical knowledge.
-
How does economic demands affect the content of the curriculum
For functionalists, the education system has the role of producing the right number of trained and qualified workers that the economy needs - a certain number of doctors, engineers, teachers and so on. As these demands change, so the curriculum will change.
A recent example of this in the United Kingdom is a change from lessons and exam subjects called Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to Computer Studies, with the latter having an emphasis on programming rather than using software such as word processing
Steiner schools
-Steiner schools, based on the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), are an example of an alternative approach to learning and the curriculum that produces a ‘different kind of message’ about education.
In Steiner schools:
-The curriculum reflects the needs of the child at each stage of their development.
-Children enter classes according to their age rather than academic ability.
-Subject material is presented in an individual way that aims to interest the learner.
-Children are encouraged to discover and learn for themselves.
-Learning involves the development of ‘practical, emotional and thinking capacities’.
How does gender influence the content of the curriculum
Gender can also be an influence on the curriculum. This happens in two ways.
First, different subjects are associated with males (masculinity) and females (femininity), and this influences the choices students make about which optional subjects to study, and their attitude to the subject. Vocational subjects are particularly strongly gendered so that for vocational subjects students are often taught in single sex classrooms or ones dominated by one sex.
Second, teachers tend to teach different material within a subject, or to teach it differently, depending on whether they are teaching boys or girls or both.
Ethnocentric curriculum
-The term ethnocentric refers to the belief that your own ethnic group or culture is superior to others.
–The ethnocentric curriculum is usually based on the values that are dominant in a society, and these are likely to be those of the majority ethnic group.
-Students from minority groups may experience the curriculum as not relevant. For example, students from a minority background may find that the content of lessons does not include their own history or literature, or reduces their worth at the expense of the majority culture. The formal subject content - ideas about democracy or racial equality for example - may clash with the ‘learned experiences’ of minority students.
Example of the ethnocentric curriculum
-The school curriculum in Britain has been described as ethnocentric because white british culture and ethnicity are presented as superior and dominate the curriculum while minority ethnic cultures are largely excluded from subjects like history, literature , art and music.
-A study based on interviews with 84 African-Caribbean students provided evidence to support this view (Tikly et al., 2006). It found that A significant number of African-Caribbean pupils noted their invisibility in the curriculum and were exasperated by the White European focus’. When Black history was included, ‘many pupils reported their frustration with
the tendency to focus on slavery.
The gendered curriculum
Gendered curriculum choices
(how the different genders tend to pick different subjects)
-For feminists the way economies are structured sends messages to students about how different occupations are gendered. This translates into gendered curriculum choices.
->Girls often choose subjects such as english, psychology, art and design, sociology and media studies.
->Boys choose subjects like physics, business, geography etc
-This difference in subject choice at school level translates into differences at undergraduate level.
Self and Zealey (2007)
they noted that;
-more women than men studied subjects linked to medicine, such as nursing
-more men than women studied business and administrative services, engineering and technology subjects
and computer sciences.
The equal opportunities commission (2007) & Warrington and Younger (2000)
-The Equal Opportunities Commission (2007) in the UK argue that educational achievements - girls consistently outperform boys at all levels of the UK education system - are not necessarily helping women into well-paid jobs.
-They suggest that one cause of the variation between achievement and occupation is gender stereotyping, the idea that boys and girls have different educational and occupational aptitudes.
-As Warrington and Younger (2000) note, male and female career aspirations often reflect traditional gender stereotypes, such as childcare, nursing, hairdressing and secretarial for girls, and computing, accountancy and plumbing for boys.
How does work experience place students into traditionally stereotyped jobs
-There is evidence that work experience places boys and girls into traditionally stereotyped jobs.
Mackenzie’s (1997) study found that:
- 45% of girls were allocated to caring placements, but these did not always reflect their choices.
- Boys who did not get their preferred placement tended to be allocated to occupations that they considered
as either neutral or traditionally male. - Girls who were unsuccessful in their preferred placements were allocated to traditionally female occupations.
-In this respect, vocational training is more likely to result in both males and females being directed into ‘traditional’ forms of gendered employment.
-Kampmeier (2004), however, argues that while there are greater opportunities for stereotyping and segregation in vocational training, because of a relatively narrow range of occupational types covered, ‘academic education’ does not necessarily guarantee a lack of stereotyping and segregation.
role of vocational education is to reinforce gender stereotypes
-Across Europe ‘gender segregation in the labour market has not been considerably reduced during the last decades, as far as “typical” male and female occupations - such as electricians and nursery nurses - are concerned’.
-The argument here, therefore, is that one role of vocational education is to reinforce gender (and class) stereotypes and divisions in ways that are not quite so clear with academic forms of education, mainly because they do not necessarily direct males and females into particular forms of work at a relatively early age.
feminists argument that traditional assumptions about masculinity and femininity continue to influence both family and work relationships in the following ways :
-Although female horizons have widened over the past 25 years, feminists argue that traditional assumptions about masculinity and femininity continue to influence both family and work relationships in areas such as the following:
- Textbooks and gender stereotyping: males appear more frequently and are more likely to be shown in active (‘doing and demonstrating’), rather than passive, roles. Best (1992), for example, demonstrated how pre-school texts designed to develop reading skills remain populated by sexist assumptions and stereotypes.
*Subject hierarchies: both teachers and students quickly appreciate that some subjects are more important than others, both within the formal curriculum, such as English, maths and science, and outside the curriculum, subjects not considered worthy of inclusion and hence knowing.
-The argument here is that gender hierarchies reflect these subject hierarchies, with males choosing higher-status subjects in far greater numbers.
Norman et al. (1988)
-Norman et al. (1988) argued that teacher expectations, especially in early-years schooling, emphasise female roles related to the mother/carer.
-While females may no longer automatically see their primary role as one of caring for their family, work roles continue to be based around the idea of different male and female capabilities, both mental and physical. This can result in gendered subject choices.
The hidden curriculum
–The hidden curriculum is a concept that Jackson (1968) defined as the things children learn from the experience of attending school.
-Skelton (1997) suggested that informal education involves a ‘set of implicit messages relating to knowledge, values, norms of behaviour and attitudes that learners experience in and through educational processes’
What messages do schools transmit through the hidden curriculum
-The hidden curriculum, therefore, refers to the idea that schools transmit certain value-laden messages to students.
These messages have two dimensions:
-Intended consequences are the things that teachers do, such as encouraging particular values, (for example, politeness, the importance of order and obedience to authority), while discouraging others (for example, questioning the role and authority of the teacher, lack of effort or attendance).
-Unintended consequences include the messages that students receive through the teaching and learning process. This includes status messages, such as whether boys appear to be more valued than girls, and messages relating to beliefs about ability: whether teachers believe it is ‘natural’ or the product of ‘hard work’, for example.
socialisation messages and status messages in the hidden curriculum
In general, the messages transmitted within schools as part of a hidden curriculum fall into two broad categories: socialisation messages and status messages.
socialisation messages, and what do children learn ideas about in the hidden curriculum
Socialisation messages relate to what is required from students if they are to succeed in education. Some ideas refer explicitly to how students should behave. These include various classroom processes that involve order and control, such as attendance and being on time (punctuality). Others relate to the things that students must demonstrate in order to ‘learn how to learn’. In part, this involves learning conformity to formal school rules.
-However, it also means understanding the informal rules, beliefs and attitudes maintained through the socialisation process, such as recognising the teacher’s authority and not questioning what is being taught.
Children also learn ideas about:
- individualism - learning is a process that should not, ultimately, be shared
- competition - the goal is to demonstrate you are better than your peers through various types of testing. Assessment is also an important part of the hidden curriculum because it suggests that knowledge is only useful if it can be quantified
- knowledge - to pass exams, the student must conform to what the teacher presents as valid knowledge, realised and tested through formal written examinations.
status messages
-Status messages relate to the ideas that students develop about their ‘worth’.
- The type of school a child attends influences the individual’s self-image and sense of self-worth. In some societies, for example, a small band of private, fee-paying schools have the highest social status. More generally, schools are given a status as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ based on their exam results.
- Practices such as segregating children in different streams, bands and sets (see below) affect student self- perceptions in terms of membership of high-achieving or low-achieving academic groups.
- The idea that academic (higher) and vocational (lower) subjects have different statuses in the curriculum and school. The hidden curriculum gives lower status to particular groups, especially working-class children, but also such groups as the mentally and physically disabled.
The curriculum and cultural capital
Bourdieu (1971, 1974) education is biased in favour of the social classes who have high amounts of economic and cultural capital
-Bourdieu (1971, 1974) argued that the education system is systematically biased in favour of dominant social classes who have high amounts of economic and cultural capital.
-As such, it devalues the knowledge and skills of the working class. Dominant groups have the power to impose their own meanings as legitimate.
-They are able to define their own culture as worthy of being sought and possessed’. and to establish it as the basis for knowledge in the education system.
-However, there is no objective way of showing that the dominant culture is any better or worse than other subcultures in society. The high value placed on dominant culture simply stems from the ability of the powerful to impose their definitions of reality on others.
How does Bourdieu link the school curriculum to cultural capital
-Bourdieu linked the school curriculum to cultural capital. Dominant classes who possess cultural and economic capital have greater access to the highest levels of the education system and to higher-level qualifications. By contrast, the working class is excluded from these.
-The curriculum in schools restricts the life chances of working-class students. Bourdieu saw the curriculum as biased rather than as neutral because It makes demands on all students but, in reality, not all students are able to meet these demands.
-Children whose families have provided them with the necessary cultural and social skills and attitudes that lead to academic success are rewarded with qualifications. Although their success is seen as being based on their natural or innate ability,
-Bourdieu argued that it is, in fact, based on the cultural capital that their families have equipped them with from an early age. Children whose families have not provided them with the necessary skills to succeed are excluded from the education system.
