Session Information
Session 5A, Education Policy, Social Pedagogy and Curriculum Development in the Knowledge Society (1)
Papers
Time:
2005-09-08
13:00-14:30
Room:
ENG
Chair:
David Bridges
Contribution
The aim of this paper is to draw on Jacques Derrida's ideas about deconstruction to engage with the modern National Curriculum policy for geography in England.The contemporary Geography National Curriculum policy text for England (1999) appears clearly to define the meaning and to determine the mission of curriculum knowledge in state schools for youngsters aged 5-14. School textbooks represent the interpretation of policy into classroom texts, resources and activities. However, Derrida argues that signs are insecure and never fully under our control. He encourages us to question signs (these may be written texts, images, artefacts, institutions, the wide world web) to reveal pre-suppositions that may underpin them and to show how their meanings are always changing and will always exceed the intentions of their author. Deconstruction is not destructive, it is productive - it searches out and welcomes in the 'other' that has been omitted, excluded, marginalized and forgotten in the work of these pre- suppositions. In this sense, Derrida claims, 'deconstruction is justice'. In the paper, I use an example of the map section in one popular school geography curriculum textbook to show that the text deconstructs to reveal how the 'other' is overlooked. I imagine a new approach to knowing about maps which takes seriously their politics and ethics plus the impossibility of ever producing an 'accurate' map.The deconstruction of the geography curriculum policy and textbook extract forms the platform for the discussion of four issues. The first is that curriculum policy and school textbooks reflect epistemological assumptions that may limit, control and stifle learners' experience of geographical knowledge. The second is that curriculum policies are not responses to clearly visible pre-existing educational problems. Social regulations order and govern the conception and identification of policy problems and in turn, the nature of policy problems influences what becomes visible and available as credible policy solutions. Third are the wider implications in this globalising era for the emerging post nation state, of a statutory national school curriculum policy that encloses, protects and perpetuates modern forms of knowledge. The fourth issue is the value of Derridean thinking as a means of engaging policy with a view to a more responsible curriculum theorising to come.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.