Curriculum studies

In his article, Pinar (1978) wrote, “If this process of transformation continues at its present rate,

the field of curriculum studies will be profoundly different in 20 years time than it has been

during the first 50 years of its existence" (p.205). Pinar was wrong in a sense that 20 years after

his publication, there had been slow progress in curriculum studies. This is due to the computer

and information technology development up to the year of 1998 were considered stagnant, so

there had not been any changes. However, right now 40 years later, the development of

curriculum studies has increased due to the rapid changing of technology. Because of these

technological developments, the ways people work and learn have changed drastically, and it

impacts to the expectations set by employers for their new recruits and how schools are able to

build students’ characters and traits that are required to survive in this era.

As pointed out by Allison (1983), the purpose of curriculum studies should be focusing on

evaluating all decisions and steps that have been made whether they are able to help students or

schools achieving their intended learning objectives or school visions, whether their taken

actions have steered them into the right paths. The goal of learning experiences designed within

the school curriculum is to prepare students as active contributors and problem solvers in the

community.

Wang (2006) emphasized the impacts of globalization on curriculum studies, in which the

necessity of integrating global perspectives into classroom has become apparent. It’s not a matter

of adding more contents into curriculum, but more to cultivate the way students understand that

their thinking and actions would have great impacts to the world. For example, in one of my

mathematics project I did with 7th grade students, in which we applied the knowledge and

procedures of linear gradient to the context of world climate change. We used data of CO2
emission to find out how it changes over time, and find out the rate of changes using linear

gradient theory.

As a future curriculum theorist, I think that curriculum studies would develop more intense in the

next couple of years, in line with the rapid development of technologies and other world events.

What might be important to be included in the current curriculum, might not be relevant in

several years of time. Such as the demand of integrating and cultivating communication,

collaboration, critical thinking, creative thinking, and computational thinking skills in the school

curriculum.

Curriculum changes in Indonesia

Recently, the Ministry of Education, Research and Technology has launched the new school

curriculum with Pancasila Student Profiles. Pancasila is our country’s ideologies, developed by

our founding fathers before the independence. While the previous Pancasila is taught by focusing

on becoming a good citizens of the country, the new Pancasila Student Profiles have integrated

global awareness, tolerance and acceptance of cultural diversities, critical thinking,

communications, and collaborations. This shows that by launching the new curriculum, the

government wants schools in Indonesia to educate our future generations to become competent

in giving positive contributions to the society.

References:

Allison, B. (1983). The real concerns and purposes of curriculum development studies. Journal

of Art & Design Education, 2(2), 231–234. doi:10.1111/j.1476-8070.1983.tb00072.x 

Pinar, W. (1978). The Reconceptualisation of Curriculum Studies. Journal of Curriculum

Studies, 10:3, 205-21. Retrieved from: http://daneshnamehicsa.ir/userfiles/file/Resources/8-

2%29%20Ideologies/ARTICLE_William%20Pinar.pdf

Wang, H. (2006). Globalization and curriculum studies: Tensions, challenges, and

possibilities. Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies

(JAAACS), 2.