Constructing a Nonaffirmative Approach: Rethinking Text, Talk, and Technology Within an Academic Curriculum Discourse

• In Event: 42.024 - Postnationalism and Cosmopolitanism: Implications for Leadership and Curriculum-Making

Abstract

Recent examinations of education policy and research demonstrate a common transnational interest in learning outcomes (Sivesind & Wahlström, 2016). Due to cross-institutional collaborations and a de-contextualisation of policy programmes, generic terms such as knowledge, skills and competencies are highlighted at the cost of a more substantial and practical orientation to education and its programmes. This paper makes use of an ideational approach (Béland & Cox, 2011) to analyse a collection of research articles written within the field of curriculum studies between 1960s and the present. It demonstrates how text and talk as two conceptual signifiers are being transformed by the affirmative believes in an evidenced use of technologies. It also questions the role this technology is playing in advocating a generic orientation to curriculum. Drawing on the notion of guided pathways to future education (Dewey, 1990/1915) the paper provides examples on how pragmatic theories combine substantial and generic concepts in dealing with problems of a heterogenic society and how quasi-practical modes of reflection inform professional judgement which implies moral believes and values (Schwab, 1978). Through a comparative-historical study, the paper concludes on how curriculum is shaped by the formation of ideas, which helps to clarify how non-affirmative approaches can be constructed within an academic curriculum discourse about multidimensional problems in today’s society.

Author

• Kirsten Sivesind, University of Oslo