The modern society is adopting new curriculums in education to include the issues affecting today’s society, including equality in the treatment of vulnerable populations. According to Brown and Wayne (2009), the field of curriculum studies has a history of evaluating its past to enhance further improvement. In my view, it is necessary for this field to synthesize the patterns and trends all through its foundations to build a stronger foundation on which it might be developed to ensure a better future. Curriculum studies need to look more into any upcoming issues in contemporary society. It is important to note that there are matters that are changing in society, including views on gender, sexuality, and culture that need to be included in curriculum studies.
Furthermore, Schmidt (2014) presents a way into which upcoming societal issues such as sexuality can be included in the curriculum. It is important to consider including these issues in the curriculum to accommodate a social change in society. Including the issues covered by Schmidt (2014) will also help in ensuring inclusion without discrimination in society. The views expressed by Schmidt (2014) are in line with the social meliorists ideology that believes that education is a vital tool that can be used to reform the society while achieving a better future. The current consequences of this ideology include the inclusion of a wide range of topics impacting the modern society in the curriculum. Furthermore, the purposes of current social meliorists changed from those in the past because socialization is becoming more based on the intelligence and ability of individuals thus, the current meliorists are aiming at improving education on an individual ground. In such a case, the curriculum in today’s society is tailored to the individual needs of the students, which in turn leads to the inclusion of even the vulnerable in society.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Concerning Carver (2008), experiential education is a comprehensive entity that has a wide variety of closely knit parts. Experiential education has been applied in a wide range of studies, including philosophy and sociology. It is, thus, an interdisciplinary field that requires collective consideration for application in different areas of study. It is also a critical area in ensuring that people are focused on a range of topics that impact the overall society.
As proposed by Gruenewald (2003), place-based education is a tradition that should be encouraged, especially due to its consideration of the society that people are living in. Such could be in agreement with the view of Brown and Wayne (2009) that encourages the inclusion of every society’s views in the curriculum. It will also help in covering such an issue as the great depression that is outlined by Kliebard (2009). Including issues that affect the society in the curriculum will help in keeping students updated about the issues affecting society.
Social meliorism was the premise upon which the debate about changing the curriculum started. Social meliorism encompassed questioning American society with the perception that reforms in the education sector were fundamental to the initiation of changes. George S. Counts, similar to Harold O. Rogg advocated the introduction of a scientific curriculum in America. They proposed a curriculum that reflected the 1920s social concerns, and that was responsive to the demands of knowledge during the industrial age. Regarding the inclusion of vulnerable populations, they supported a curriculum that is derived from leaners’ interests. Besides, the proposed curriculum was to be responsive to children’s learning needs. It would be a curriculum that embraces social justice and addresses the shortcomings of capitalism. In essence, it would engage the vulnerable populations in America. The curriculum would serve to support the ideals of social reconstruction in America (Kliebard, 2009, p. 156). Critical curriculum ideologies outlined by Kliebard include learners’ interests, freedom of natural development, scientific concepts, and the teacher as a guide. First, the curriculum was to care for learners’ interest. Secondly, it would allow the freedom of learners to learn in a natural environment. Third, the curriculum was to feature scientific concepts as a basis of driving knowledge. Finally, the teacher would serve as a guide to learners under the proposed curriculum.
References
Brown, A., & Wayne, A. (2009). Race, Memory, and Master Narratives: A Critical Essay on U.S. Curriculum History . Curriculum Inquiry .
Carver, R. (2008). Theory for Practice: A Framework for Thinking About Experiential Education . Philosophical Foundations, 149-159.
Gruenewald, D. (2003). The Best of Both Worlds: A Critical Pedagogy of Place. Educational Researcher , 3–12.
Kliebard, L. (2009). The Great Depression and the Heyday of Social Meliorism. In R. Bowker, American Book Publishing Record, Volume 45, Issues 9-10 (pp. 151-189). University of Michigan.
Schmidt, S. (2014). A queer arrangement of school: using spatiality to understand inequity. Journal of Curriculum Studies , 253-273.
