The relationship between the school curriculum and the struggle for power : a study in the philosophy of education

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The fact that meanings of what is transmitted in schools is under attack from various power struggles has focused attention on the role of curricular knowledge as a supposed instrument of cultural domination and/or discrimination. Hence, in this study the power of knowledge (or truth) is explored in regard to both its purpose and the person or group in control of that purpose, while the struggle for power is viewed in the light of attempts (or demands on the school curriculum) to gain partial or complete control of the purpose and selection of curricular knowledge.So as to gain an understanding of the relationship between the struggle for power and the school curriculum, five examples of power struggles have been selected as a focus on the most important trends in the prevailing demands on the school curriculum: Feminism, the Gay movement, People'sEducation, the economy and the environment (the Green movement).The outcome of this study is that, in one way or another, most demands on the school curriculum reflect the fact that it is the dominant Western cultural tradition that is suffering a crisis. Increasingly, the intensifying demands on the school curriculum is symptomatic of a broader crisis, of a challenge to the Western-oriented interpretation of truth with its mainroots in science and the perception that access to the economy is imperative to the life chances, or visions of accumulated (personal) wealth, of the majority of people on earth.Therefore, underlying most demands on the school curriculum is the crucial question of the fundamental aims of education interpreted in terms of the (at times) competing aims of the various power struggles. Criticism of, and demands on, the school curriculum are mostly influenced by changing interpretations of freedom, equality and human dignity. Likewise, changes in the social consciousness profoundly influence the legitimation of truth (or the power of knowledge) in accordance with changing interpretations ofthe democratic ideal in terms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.Ongoing power struggles (or demands on the school curriculum), therefore, have the important function of preserving a democratic balance between power and knowledge in the school curriculum.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University