Pedagogy, curriculum, and culture
These notes are part of a series for the book. This article examines how the values of various countries, expressed with cultural scripts, influence pedagogy. The author equates culture with country, while socioculturalists see culture as a set of practices that shape identity and that may not fall neatly within geographical lines. The article focuses on a large study done in England, France, India, Russia, and the United States. It was published in 2001, and the author has since revised his thinking.
Outline
- What is pedagogy? Pedagogy and:
- Didactics
- Curriculum
- Culture:
- Teaching
- Learning
- Control
Notes
Pedagogy: The act of teaching and discourse that includes theories, beliefs, policies, and controversies. Pedagogy connects teaching with culture and instruments of social control.
Pedagogy and didactics
Pedagogy is studied and takes in a broad range of topics.
Didactics: One important topic included in pedagogy. Specifically, this is the methods of teaching subjects.
| Countries | Study of pedagogy and didactics |
|---|---|
| Continental Europe (includes Russia, excludes the U.K.) | Pedagogy is studied and takes in a broad range of topics |
| Germany and Russia | Didactics is further divided into general didactics and specialist/subject didactics |
| Central Europe | Pedagogy is rooted in humanism, empiricism, and Protestantism (Erasmus, Bacon, and Luther) |
| France | Pedagogy covers psychological aspects, while didactics cover logical aspects |
| France and the U.S. | Didactics also are divided, similar to the German and Russian way. |
| U.S. | Shulman, Bruner, and others argued that children's personal knowledge must be recognized and respected, because of an overriding value of individualism |
| England | Alan Blyth made arguments similar to Shulman and Bruner |
Key people:
- Jerome Bruner: Spiral curriculum in which subjective understanding and discipline-based knowledge are in equilibrium.
- William Alan Lansdell Blyth: A “dendritic” model — begins with a unity of experience and consciousness and progresses through subjective knowledge to objective.
- Celestin Freinet: Pedagogy that respects the individual but also values social culturalization as important (balancing individual and collective needs).
Pedagogy and curriculum
Comparison of the 5 countries: Mostly, the difference in how curriculum is understood in the five countries studied was the degree to which teachers see a prescribed (that is, mandated, national) curriculum as problematic. Most countries accept it; teachers in the U.S. and U.K. argue against it.
U.K. and U.S.: In pedagogical discourse, curriculum is central, and the definition of curriculum grew in the U.S. during the late 1950s and 1960s so that almost all instruction fell into “curriculum”. In the U.K., a similar expansion of its definition happened in the 1960s and 1970s.
‘Pedagogy’ versus ‘curriculum’
U.K. and U.S.: The main discussion is of “curriculum”. The “curriculum” discussion shapes pedagogy. “Curriculum” can have both broad and narrow definitions so that it can be used like other countries use “pedagogy” and “didactics”.
In central Europe: “Pedagogy” shapes curriculum and didactics.
The author: Prefers the word “pedagogy” because it cannot be misinterpreted as the narrower definition of “curriculum”. In Alexander’s definition, pedagogy includes everything that happens in the classroom (not ‘just’ curriculum). Aspects of teaching included in his definition of pedagogy are:
- Frames, such as space, student organization, time, curriculum, routine, rule, and ritual
- Forms, such as lessons
- Acts, such as task, activity, interaction, and judgement
‘Is the question of definition of genuine importance, or are we just playing with words? I believe that these differences are indeed significant. First, the emphases within a culture’s educational discourse say a great deal about what matters most and least to those engaged in that discourse: the whole curriculum and the whole child; efficient induction into an accepted version of culture, citizenship, and knowledge; moral, personal and civic upbringing; cultural reproduction; cultural transformation; and so on. Second, one of the definitions actually works better. The inherent ambiguities of meaning surrounding ‘curriculum’ — is it everything the school does or merely what is prescribed to be taught, the formal curriculum or the not-so-hidden ‘hidden’ curriculum? — cause communication on such matters to be more difficult than it deserves. And for teachers and administrators in countries with national curricula… there is no longer any ambiguity about the term, for curriculum is what is prescribed. Further, once content is detached in this way, it encourages the narrow treatment of matters of teaching strategy and style’ (Alexander, 2001, p. 12-13).
Comparison with Murphy
Alexander’s pedagogy of mutuality is similar to Patricia Murphy’s views, but Murphy takes an unambiguous sociocultural stance.
- See also: Murphy, P. (1996) ‘Defining Pedagogy’
| Murphy's article about pedagogy | Alexander's article about pedagogy |
|---|---|
| Classrooms are cultural settings, so it is important to look at the histories people have with participation. Their histories mediate their learning, so we should pay attention to the enacted curriculum. But, pedagogy also includes the experienced curriculum. | The enacted curriculum is pedagogy. Pedagogy does not include the experienced curriculum. |
| Tasks and activities be meaningful to the learner, and extend mutuality to them. | Tasks and activities are structuring resources. |
| We should let students participate in 'specialist discourses' and as theorists themselves so that they can deconstruct the information in the curriculum and thus understand it better. | The pedagogy of enculturation helps learners view their world critically. |