Background and Rationale

Across contemporary education systems, conditions of crisis and uncertainty - ranging from technological transformation and global instability to shifting labour and knowledge landscapes - have become increasingly salient. Within educational discourse, the concept of resilience has gained prominence and is most often framed as the capacity of systems, institutions, or individuals to adapt to change. Far less analytical attention, however, has been directed towards the resilience of educational knowledge itself.

Curriculum constitutes a central mechanism through which educational knowledge is selected, legitimised, and transmitted. Prior to any assessment-related decisions, curriculum structures determine which forms of knowledge are made available for teaching and learning and which are rendered peripheral or excluded. Under conditions of crisis, curriculum decision-making becomes particularly consequential, as education systems are required to negotiate tensions between continuity and change, stability and responsiveness, and tradition and innovation.

Methodologically, this paper approaches curriculum not as a static artefact or neutral container of content, but as a dynamic and contested space of knowledge negotiation. From this perspective, resilience is not understood as the preservation of fixed content elements, but as an emergent property of curriculum processes through which knowledge is selected, prioritised, framed, and justified over time.

Computer Science teaching provides a productive analytical case for examining these processes. As a rapidly evolving subject area, Computer Science is characterised by unstable knowledge domains, frequent curriculum revisions, and close entanglements with digital technologies and societal change. These characteristics render visible the tensions that shape curriculum knowledge selection, particularly in contexts marked by uncertainty. In this paper, Computer Science teaching is examined not as pedagogical practice, but as a curriculum site in which educational knowledge is stabilised, reconfigured, or displaced prior to assessment.

Objective

The objective of this paper is to analyse how educational knowledge is selected, stabilised, and reconfigured through curriculum discourses and justificatory narratives in Computer Science education under conditions of crisis. Resilience is conceptualised as a property of curriculum knowledge rather than as a pedagogical or assessment-related attribute.

Research Questions

The paper addresses the following research questions:

1. How is educational knowledge selected and legitimised within Computer Science curricula under conditions of crisis and uncertainty?

2. Which forms of knowledge are prioritised as “resilient,” and which are marginalised or displaced through curriculum processes?

3. How does Computer Science education illuminate broader curriculum dynamics of knowledge adaptation within changing educational and digital ecosystems?

Conceptual and Theoretical Framework

The paper is grounded in curriculum theory that conceptualises curriculum as a socially and historically situated process of knowledge selection and legitimation. Within this framework, resilience is understood as the capacity of curriculum knowledge to endure, adapt, or transform in response to crisis. Rather than functioning as a normative demand placed on teachers or learners, resilience is analysed as a curriculum logic that structures how educational knowledge is framed, justified, and sustained over time.

he study adopts a conceptual-theoretical methodology situated within curriculum studies. It does not involve empirical data collection and does not aim to analyse assessment practices, measurement procedures, or classroom pedagogy. Instead, it focuses on curriculum knowledge as a socially constructed and historically contingent object of analysis. The analysis proceeds in three interrelated stages. First, dominant curriculum discourses in Computer Science education are examined, with particular attention to how curriculum aims, rationales, and intended learning outcomes are articulated in relation to crisis, uncertainty, and future orientation. Curriculum documents and policy-related texts are treated as conceptual artefacts that reveal underlying assumptions about what constitutes valuable and legitimate knowledge. Second, the study analyses how different forms of knowledge are positioned in relation to stability and change within Computer Science curricula. This includes examining tensions between foundational concepts and rapidly evolving technological content, as well as between technical knowledge and broader epistemic dimensions of the subject. These tensions are interpreted as curriculum-level negotiations rather than pedagogical challenges. Third, the paper develops a theoretical synthesis that links curriculum knowledge selection in Computer Science to wider debates on the resilience of educational knowledge. Rather than proposing curriculum reforms, the analysis clarifies how resilience operates as a curriculum concept and how it shapes understandings of educational knowledge under conditions of crisis.

The paper makes three contributions to curriculum research. First, it offers a conceptual clarification of resilience as a property of educational knowledge rather than as an individual disposition or pedagogical competence. By foregrounding curriculum knowledge selection, the analysis demonstrates how resilience is embedded in decisions about which forms of knowledge are stabilised, reconfigured, or displaced in times of crisis. Second, the study advances curriculum theory by showing how rapidly evolving subject areas such as Computer Science can serve as analytical lenses for examining broader curriculum dynamics of knowledge adaptation. The analysis highlights the ways in which curriculum processes mediate tensions between continuity and change, thereby shaping how educational knowledge is made resilient over time. Third, the paper contributes to discussions of future-oriented education by emphasising the role of curriculum as a primary site in which responses to crisis are articulated through knowledge selection. It argues that understanding curriculum knowledge resilience is essential for maintaining the epistemic integrity of education without reducing resilience to short-term adaptability or instrumental demands.

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