Curriculum theory: what it is, characteristics, and historical development

You are going to learn at school, but not all content is worthy of being taught by the formal educational system. Before the teacher or professor teaches his students something, that something must have been selected, being considered useful and necessary content for the educational audience to whom it is directed.

Curriculum theory is a pedagogical approach aimed at examining and shaping the contents that should be taught in the educational field, taking charge of deciding what content should be part of an educational curriculum to achieve that students become individuals with useful skills in their daily lives and labor. Let's land on this concept and see where it comes from and what currents are within this theory.

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What is curriculum theory?

Curriculum theory is an academic theoretical-practical approach aimed at examining and shaping the content to be taught in education. Followers of this trend are in charge of deciding what content should be present in the academic curriculum, considering which are the most necessary, useful and appropriate learning processes for students within a system concrete educational.

This approach can be done either by targeting what a particular individual, a class, or all students who pass through the educational system should learn.

Some of the fields to which this approach is dedicated are the analysis of the values ​​to be transmitted, the Historical analysis of the educational curriculum, analysis of current teachings and theories about the education of the future. Therefore, we can say that curriculum theory is an approach related to several disciplines related to the pedagogical field, such as psychology, sociology, philosophy and, of course, the education.

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The definition of the word resume

You cannot talk about curriculum theory without defining what the curriculum is. This, in fact, is one of the main aspects of the theory and, to this day, there is still some debate about what We can understand by curriculum or curriculum, since it is a polysemantic word, that is, with several definitions.

Although the word “curriculum” is a very close term for those who actively participate in the processes education from any field of formal education, its definition is even complicated for those who are professionals in this aspect. However, we can say that curriculum is a term used to refer to study plans, programs and even didactic implementations.

The five definitions that we can give about what a curriculum is are the following.

1. The curriculum as the content of teaching

In this sense, curriculum is a list of subjects, subjects or topics that delimit the content that must be taught and learned in educational centers.

2. The curriculum as a plan or guide for school activity

The curriculum is a learning plan in which the need for an ideal model for school activity is emphasized. Its function is to homogenize the teaching and learning process.

3. The curriculum understood as experience

In this case the curriculum is seen not as what should be done but in the reality that is achieved. The reality is the sum of the experiences of the students that have been achieved thanks to the school and its stakeholders.

4. The curriculum as a system

This conception of the curriculum is based on systems theory. A system is characterized by its constituent elements and the relationships that these establish. In this case, the curriculum would highlight the existence of educational goals that students must achieve.

5. The curriculum as a discipline

The curriculum is not only an active and dynamic process, it is also a reflection on the same process.

It is these five definitions that influence the conception of curriculum theory and that today make it continue to be understood in multiple ways. However, the common and main motivating aspects of the development of such a theory is the purpose of make school content useful to students, in addition to having the intention of achieving homogenization of academic contents but always taking into account the sociocultural phenomena from which students cannot dissociate themselves.

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History of this theory

Curriculum theory has its origins in the first decades of the 20th century, and various people have been responsible for shaping this approach. This theory appeared shortly before 1920 in the United States, at which point an attempt was made to homogenize the school contents in all the country's schools in response to the great wave of immigration from Europe and the great advances that were being made thanks to the industrialization.

The United States at the beginning of the last century was experiencing an abysmal demographic increase, causing more and more people who required training to be able to perform adequately in a society in which everything seemed to indicate that in the not too distant future technology was going to acquire a very important role. important. The idea behind the pioneers of curriculum theory was to try to give a dignified education to all citizens of the country equally.

It is John Franklin Bobbit who is credited with the authorship of the first work on curriculum theory with his book "The curriculum" (1918). Bobbit was an educator, university professor and writer who belonged to the functionalist current who gave two meanings to the word “curriculum”. On the one hand it referred to the development of useful skills through a series of specific tasks, while on the other it referred to the activities that should be implemented in schools in order to ensure that students acquire such abilities.

Bobbit's conception of the curriculum was that it was a description of the objectives that students should achieve during their passage through the formal educational system. To do this, a series of standardized procedures needed to be developed so that all children and girls in the United States had the same opportunities to obtain the same knowledge, no matter where they lived. Added to this, the same tools should also be used when evaluating progress as long as students' progress could be compared objectively.

Bobbit planted the seed for other thinkers to expand curriculum theory with their insights and findings. Among them we have the figure of John dewey, American philosopher, psychologist and educator who considered the figure of the teacher as a facilitator of learning for children. Dewey believed that the curriculum should be more practical, and serve to meet the future needs of children.

Throughout the last century, the followers of the functionalist current of education agreed that the curriculum education should think above all about what children needed, but there was debate as to what was the most appropriate way to implement this. Times changed and the content to be taught as well, which meant that the curriculum was somewhat unstable, a set of socially dependent knowledge that varies depending on what the demands of society are and what vision they have of what it is "functional".

We have one of the modern works on curriculum theory in the book “Curriculum: crisis, myth and perspectives ”, from the doctor in philosophy and science of Mexican education Alicia de Alba Ceballos (1991). In this work, Dr. de Alba defends the curriculum as something that is nothing more than a set of values, knowledge and beliefs imposed by society and political reality in which it develops.

According to the Mexican doctor, the main objective of the different components of the educational curriculum is to impart a vision of the world to the students through tools such as the imposition of ideas or the denial of other realities, something that has a certain nuance indoctrinator.

No matter how hard you try, education is difficult to detach from politics and ideology since, in itself, the contents to be taught are selected by people who consider what is appropriate and useful to teach, something modulated by their own way of seeing and understanding the world.

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The main currents of curriculum theory

Next we are going to see what are the most notable features of the main currents of curricular theory: academic, humanistic and sociological.

1. Academic stream

According to the academic stream of curriculum theory, the goal of education is specialize each student in a specific field of knowledge. This conception supports the need for students to study increasingly complex and specific topics, giving them the option that they can choose those fields of knowledge that most attract their attention to carve out their future wanted.

The curricular contents must be organized according to the specific competences that each "expert" must acquire. to do his job properly. As this vision defends the idea of ​​teaching useful knowledge to students within an industrial society, it is put a lot of emphasis on science and technology, regardless of students' interest in the world Technological scientist.

The academic current sees the teacher as a person whose task is to provide his students with the necessary knowledge and help them solve any doubts or problems they may have. The educational effort does not fall solely on the teacher, since students also have obligationsThe main one being to investigate the topics in which they want to specialize, be able to acquire new learning on their own and use what they have learned in real life.

2. Humanistic current

In the humanistic conception the school curriculum is seen as a set of knowledge aimed at providing maximum satisfaction to each of the students. The study should help people to reach their full potential as individuals, in addition to making it easier for them to achieve emotional well-being. The school must be a place of personal growth and the contents that are taught in it must achieve this purpose.

But the responsibility of achieving this does not lie solely in the fact that the contents to be imparted are carefully chosen. Besides this, a cordial and safe climate must be created between the students and the teacherThe latter being the one who should act as a counselor instead of imparting knowledge directly as is the case in the other two branches of curricular theory.

In the curriculum theory of humanistic conception It is argued that the knowledge taught in school should be flexible and different depending on the tastes and needs of each student. Making students learn what really interests them and teaching them in a fun and motivating way makes the educational experience rewarding and useful in itself.

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3. Sociological or functionalist current

Finally we have the sociological conception of curriculum theory, also known as functionalist. This stream understands studies as a way to prepare students for the world of work. He has a vision of teaching as that process that must be in charge of preparing children to fulfill a role that society requires of them.

This view is in favor of imparting discipline, in addition to considering that it is appropriate to transmit the practical and theoretical knowledge that the youngest will need to become good workers in the future.