Designing the Classroom Curriculum Designing the Classroom Curriculum

Designing the Classroom Curriculum does not make coffee or drive the family to work. Expecting that it would do so would inevitably lead to disappointment. But there are expectations that the TV receiver will provide stereo sound, brilliant colours, fine-grained pictures, environmentally acceptable levels of power consumption and so on. In short, the TV receiver message system fulfils certain functions well but has its limits. Using the analogy with the concept of curriculum, we can discern principles that enable the operationalisation of the term. While curriculum is a complex rather than a simple idea, it is meaningful to identify on-going concerns that provide structure and content to it and principles for its operation. These can be identified as ideals that approximate reality by selecting and accentuating core elements. These include the following: (i) Valid knowledge comprises curriculum content. It is always a politically contested selection process to determine what is “valid” (ii) The purposes of valid knowledge are shaped by either a focus on the individual or on social factors (iii) Valid knowledge is derived either from the characteristics of individuals that need to be developed or the attributes of bodies of knowledge and skills that need to be learned (iv) The purpose of curriculum is either to establish in students processes or products. The statements (i)-(iv) can be analysed at great length and depth to tease out their fine points. In thinking about curriculum in this way, a host of multifaceted issues become apparent and about which policy makers, teachers and indeed families, have to make decisions. A sample list includes: 1. Political influences: The selection, distribution and control of knowledge are sometimes thought to be objective, rational processes. After all, some say, everyone knows what is most important for children to learn at school or for tertiary students to study or what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’. However, this is not the case and such decisions are contested by societal interests, academia, the print and TV media, talk-back radio, politicians, professional associations, the tertiary institutions, and the textbook publishers and authors, the Internet, the churches and so on (Smith and Knight, 1978). In a multicultural society these issues become paramount when different cultural traditions disagree on fundamental tenets such as religious beliefs. What has become most obvious, however, is the increased role of government and politicians in curriculum development. There was some foretaste of this in the 1970s with the intervention of the Premier of Queensland and his National Party government and the consequent banning of “Man: A Course of Study” (MACOS) in schools, because of pressure from fundamentalist religious groups (Smith and Knight, 1978, pp. 225-248). Authors, such as Moe (2014) and Marsh (2009), indicate that the development of curriculum is often influenced by direct party politics, the electoral platform policies of a political party and policy created by an oligarchy within a party. Further, interest groups, such as teacher unions and parent organisations, and the bureaucracy, also affect education policies. At the time of writing, there is intense teacher union, media and political scrutiny of the National Curriculum documentation and changes have been forced in some of the draft syllabi. 6 http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/curriculum_design_and_development.html and http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/10072/44109/76028_1.pdf?sequence=1 6 24

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