Socio Cultural Foundation of Curriculum

 Dr. Sultan Muhammad Khan

Keywords; Socio Cultural Foundation of Curriculum, The Role of the Cultural in the formation of curriculum development, The Role of the Socio Cultural in the curriculum development,

Foundations of Curriculum

Foundations are the forces that influence the minds of curriculum developers.

In this way they affect the content and structure of the curriculum. The five most important foundations of the curriculum are;

1.      Philosophical foundation of Curriculum

2.      , Psychological foundations of Curriculum

3.       Socio Cultural Foundation of Curriculum

4.       Historical Foundations of Curriculum

5.       Economical Foundations of Curriculum

Socio Cultural Foundation

According to Murray print (1993). The society and culture exercise massive powers on the formation curriculum and the reason behind that it was society who created schooling to safeguard the survival of their cultural heritage, and survival of their species.

The purpose of curriculum planner and developers to translate traditional norms, philosophies, ethics, knowledge and attitudes in the objectives of curriculum, the content, learning processes and the evaluation of  elements of the curriculum. Sociological factors have highest impact on the content of curriculum and that is the reason that curriculum developers and planner both reflect and transfer their own culture in curriculum. Therefore a curriculum without the reflection of culture is not possible for that reason one should consider what characteristic of the culture should be the part of curriculum and what not.

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The social and cultural inspirations that affect curriculum designers consciously and unconsciously are apparent from the curriculum and their influence is deep. For example in Pakistan the curriculum is more reflective of the society and curriculum is design in a way that leads society to change. The society manifest through the curriculum and education, and the outcomes of the curriculum developers display the role of both of the above in curriculum development.

Because curriculum developers are the part of the society therefore they indirectly effected by the society and culture.  Their cultural standards, attitudes and beliefs leave deep impact on the individuals because the curriculum designers influence the selection of objectives, subject matter, teaching learning methods and the process of evaluation.

Example: A group of teacher formulated a new course for teaching in schools to enhance the quality of the subject in curriculum. After the completion of the subject matter when analyze again one could not determine some lesson were eliminated and some were included in the course, how the old content was evaluated even the teacher who constructed the curriculum for the subject was unable to clearly say what was the basis of their decisions. If story reading was a component of the revised curriculum, what proportion would be real reading? And Why? And what would be the method for the assessment of that lesson? What stories were selected and why these are questions need to be asked from the curriculum developers

on the other hand, may be curriculum developers are well aware of society needs and they have planned intention to incorporate all those things in the curricula which the society need in the curriculum but the question is that the curriculum should student centered or society. Curriculum should be a tool for guiding the student’s potentialities in directions or to develop those potentialities without any restrictions.

Some Social values, changes and conditions are included into some extent in some of the curriculum projects in the context of current social issues and problems, such as rapid growth of population, democratic values, urbanization, and management problems could be found in proposed program. Some vital problems and topics are considered in relation to concepts and key ideas drawn from the disciplines.

In another way in which the social situation is used as a source of content and information for the curriculum formulation may be found in the present-day situations that are selected to light up the concepts and main ideas from the selected disciplines e.g.  In mathematics program there may be some problems of social significance, for which student may use mathematical concepts to solve the problem. Or in others societal science program, socially important situations may be used to encompass and expand concepts and generalizations.

Therefore it can be concluded, that social and cultural forces have deep effect upon the curriculum. To find how much and to which degree the society and culture affect the education system of that society is controversial issue. Curriculum developer are the part of that society and culture therefore they should keep in mind that there decision could affect their culture and society. Therefore their decision should be culturally related to the society need and values

Guideline given by Rud Yard (1969) related to curriculum planning decision-making, it derived from societal needs and goals.

• The goals of education emerge from the needs  and wishes of the society
• When a society urge a need or a goal it becomes an educational objective and the school accepted that demand and they attempt to attain that goal by putting it into school objectives.

And when a societal goal become an educational objective then the school, teacher and student must make their efforts to achieve it and for that purpose appropriate educational facilities and methods must be planned.

If there is a conflict between the objectives and aims of majority and minority groups, the aims of larger group is accepted.

Educational aims are based on the study of sociological and political condition of the society and the main purpose of the curriculum is preservation and advancement of the that society

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Read more articles about Foundations of Curriculum

Psychological foundations of Curriculum

https://research-education-edu.blogspot.com/2020/01/psychological-foundations-of-curriculum.html

Philosophical foundation of Curriculum

https://research-education-edu.blogspot.com/2014/08/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html

Socio Cultural Foundation of Curriculum

https://research-education-edu.blogspot.com/2020/01/socio-cultural-foundation-of-curriculum.html

 Historical Foundations of Curriculum

https://research-education-edu.blogspot.com/2020/01/historical-foundations-of-curriculum.html

 Economical Foundations of Curriculum

https://research-education-edu.blogspot.com/2020/01/economical-foundations-of-curriculum.html