Cultural Roots of the Curriculum

A curriculum can look like a neutral technical document, but it is nothing of the kind. Look closely at the curriculum of any school in any society and you find the society’s culture written into every part of it. The curriculum is interwoven with the social fabric that sustains it.

What every curriculum contains

Observe any curriculum and the same parts appear:

1. A set of educational objectives, whether stated openly or only implied.
2. A body of subject matter to be taught.
3. A list of activities or exercises to be performed.
4. A way to determine whether the objectives have been achieved by learners.
5. Some kind of control the teacher is expected to exercise over learners.

These parts are universal to curricula. What fills them, though, is supplied by the culture.

How each part reflects the culture

The cultural roots show up part by part.

The objectives stressed will tend to be those that reflect the controlling ideas and sentiments contained in the universals, the elements nearly everyone in the society shares. A curriculum aims at what its culture already treats as important.

The subject matter will tend to be that which is believed to embrace the most significant ideas and the most generally used knowledge and skills. A culture teaches what it considers most worth knowing and most useful.

The way learners are controlled will reflect the prevailing methods of social control in society at large. A society that governs adults by strict rule tends to discipline learners the same way; one that governs by participation tends to do likewise. The classroom mirrors the society’s wider habits of control.

Put together, the curriculum as an instrument for educating the young reflects the ideals, knowledge, and skills believed to be significant and tied to the common activities of the society’s members.

Flashcard

How does a curriculum's subject matter reflect its culture?

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Answer

It tends to be the knowledge the culture believes is most significant and most used

A culture teaches what it considers most worth knowing and most useful in its members’ common activities. The content of a curriculum is a statement of what that culture values.

Flashcard

Name the five parts found in any curriculum.

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Answer

Objectives, subject matter, activities, a way to check achievement, and teacher control

These parts are universal to curricula. What fills each one is supplied by the surrounding culture, which is why a curriculum reflects its society.