This study deals with the problem of evaluating curriculum documents
which prescribe or make recommendations for curricular change. In
1980 a number of state and national education authorities in
Australia released documents which contained proposals for
reformulating the curriculum. Several of these proposals took the
form of prescribing or recommending a core curriculum while others
opted for a whole curriculum approach to the problem of the
selection and transmission of educational knowledge. Although these
are presented as practical documents - as proposals for action -
they also contain theoretical and ideological components which are
usually understated. It is the contention of this study that the
evaluation of such proposals should not be based solely on their
pragmatic or technical aspects but that their theoretical adequacy
and links with ideology should also be taken into consideration. To
this end, four of these documents have been selected, two of each
type of proposals, and are used to provide material to develop
criteria for making evaluative decisions about the theoretical and
ideological aspects of curriculum proposals. Internal criteria,
based on an analysis of the coherence and consistency of curriculum
proposals, are derived by relating the proposals to one of two
general theories of education. External criteria derive from a
meta-critique where an attempt is made to formulate broader
propositions which recognise the existence of opposition among
various assumptions and are inclusive of those in conflict.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218806 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Bullivant, Lynnette, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Lynnette Bullivant |
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