curriculum institutionalist durkheim school society

1. WHAT DO WE TEACH?
Tuğba Boz
16th of December, 2011

2. Introduction
1.) What are the functions of curriculum from a sociological
perspective?
2.) What do curriculum content include from an institutionalist
perspective?
3.) What are the elements of developing a modern curriculum
content?

3. EDUCATION- ALLOCATION OF PEOPLE INTO ROLES:
WHAT ROLES?
Economic & Political & Personel &
Occupational Organizational Familial

4. PRESERVING THE EXISTING CLASSES
It preserves the existing class, gender and ethical/ racial
hierarchies.
Dominant ethnic, cultural, gender forces may use the
educational system to reinforce their dominance and gain
advantages in educational selection.

5. “Society can survive only if there exists amongst its members a
sufficient degree of homogeneity; education perpetuates and
reinforces this homogeneity by fixing in the child from the
beginning the essential similarities which collective life demands.”
Durkheim
Individualism
Culture ELECTIVES IN THE
CURRICULUM
2.) What do curriculum content include from an
institutionalist perspective?

6. SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT- THE GOALS OF IMAGINED
COMMUNITIES
By resting on a broad culture creating & emphasizing
shared knowledge and values- language/ literature/
history/ religion and arts- music classes

7. SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT- THE GOALS OF MODERN
COMMUNITIES
All are to be citizen- persons leading
to a democratic society.
Mass educational systems are fundamentally engaged in a
project of constructing individuals.

8. Global Level
National Level
CURRICULAR CHANGE IS often better predicted by evolving models in the world society than any
local pressures of function and interest. These changes go on in extremely poor countries
or third world more rapidly. Innovations in STS reforms find expression in primary school
books much earlier than The USA, France or Germany.

9. PEOPLE’S
TRANSNATIONAL
UNIVERSALIZED
ELEMENTS
RIGHTS AND
RESPONSIBILITIES
INDIVIDUALISM MODERN
ENTELLECTUALS
NATIONAL DISTRICT
CULTURE/ CONCERNS
CONCERNS/ NEEDS

10. DEVELOPING MODERN
CURRICULUM
Authors summarize their points/
arguments/ observations on
contemporary school curricula based
on evidence and hypothesis.

11. IN TURKEY
I will integrate their findings with our
contemporary school curricula based
on observation and research.

12. SOCIAL STUDIES
Traditional national and
civilizational history built around
political and military development
of the state and geography of the
sacred national territory are
weakened and receive less
emphasis.
VS.
The substance covers both local
and international matters, in part
removed from tied boundaries of
time and space; there is a chapter
on the Dakota- a state in US-, then
on African family and community,
then on local community.

13. IN TURKEY
covers both local and
international matters, in part
removed from tied boundaries of
time and space;
…..covers both local and
international matters, in part
removed from tied boundaries
of time and space ?? DOES IT
REALLY?

14. SCIENCE
Students learn to think about
science as related to their own
identities, activities and interests,
and are less obliged to know tight
bundles of official knowledge.
They learn more about
•the rain forests,
•drought,
•recycling and
•less about the length of the
rivers,
•the types of clouds long lists of
plants etc.

15. IN TURKEY
They learn more about
•the rain forests,
•drought,
•recycling and
•less about the length
of the rivers,
•the types of clouds
long lists of plants etc.
DO THEY REALLY?

16. LITERATURE AND
LANGUAGE
The literature is no longer the
sacred canon of national and
civilizational texts; any text that
engages students can be used to
spread beliefs and ideas and
broaden understanding.
It lets students choose among
literatures of all sorts: science
fiction, romance novels reflecting
feminist/ ethnic perspectives
from anywhere in the world.

17. IN TURKEY

18. MATHS
There is a shift from the
most traditional and
deductive structures , like
geometry and
trigonometry, toward an
understanding and
collecting of data,
applications of statistics,
computer analysis and the
like.

19. CIVICS
The student is to learn
broader principles of human
rights and responsibility,
of democratic- political
structure, and of the wider
international and
ecological environment.
The students learns them
from a validated individual
point of view. An
understanding of political
system is more important
than detailed knowledge
of government.

20. IN TURKEY

21. The Traditionalists:
• Curriculum is on the way of being destroyed.
•Students no longer learn real history/ geography, or real
disciplined science or literature or artistic cultural
traditions.
•American students cannot find Atlanta on map or cannot
properly separate sentences into grammatical units and
cannot make calculations correctly and do not know what
the Civil War was or was about.

22. ANY QUESTIONS?

23. THANKS FOR LISTENING 
Reference:
THE CONTENT OF CURRICULUM:
An Institutionalist Perspective
by
Elizabeth McEneaney & John Meyer