Ideological issues in curriculum organization: comparative analysis of Belarussian and Newfoundland educational systems

Shalimo, Daria (2005) Ideological issues in curriculum organization: comparative analysis of Belarussian and Newfoundland educational systems. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Contemporary critical theory encounters and radicalizes pedagogy because it encompasses educational and social agendas where questions about justice, race, culture, sex, power, and schooling are jointly discussed. Critical theory may seem like a vague paradigm, but its main body is located in politics - politics which is presented in different aspects. This thesis provides insight into one of the political domains called ideology. It attempts to examine how cultural differences in moral presentation penetrates educational institutions and school curricula, and how power groups support this penetration to keep dominance of one culture over the others. Hence, the inquiry focuses on the investigation of two phenomena - ideology and curriculum. -- Ideology is seen as the body of ideas reflecting social needs and aspirations of an individual, a group, a class, or a culture; and it is a set of doctrines or beliefs that form the basis of a political, economic, or other system. Curriculum, in tum, is viewed as a deeply social term which takes into account social significance of schooling rather than instructional subject-oriented system. Mapping relationship between these two terms, the study chooses critical social methodology as its framework. The use of critical methodology lets this analysis to take apart or deconstruct the abstractions of mentioned terms and to reveal the inner relations between them. To achieve this understanding the study bridges the gap between theory and praxis, history and present, providing the reader with the documents of theoretical background as well as with the documents that have been actively implemented in practice. Primary sources of data which is collected and analyzed in the study comprise of the Newfoundland and Belarussian educational political platforms, more specifically provincial and country's educational legislations, acts, and decrees. Other sources of data, which give the full picture, are Ministerial Statements, Programs of Study, and Curricula. The method of comparative analysis places the inquiry into two (Newfoundland and Belarus) social domains and leads to understanding of their cultural, political, and educational similarities and differences. -- Findings from the study indicate that both in Newfoundland and Belarus school structure and curricular, in their social essence, fulfill the expectations of the society with its particular political demands. Hence, the inquiry leads to understanding that every educational system in the world follows the tasks assigned by the government of this or that country. In other words, education acts within the boundaries of the main state ideology and nurtures the students as citizens for a particular country. -- This study is an attempt to call for educators' reconsideration of the present day situation in education. This thesis is to urge the educators and politicians in rethinking the place of a modem student in the new informative age where the citizen of a particular country is seen as a citizen not only of one given country but as a citizen of the World with the global vision of world's histories, cultures, and structures.

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