Trends in Understanding Curriculum: A post-1980s Analysis

Abstract

The field of curriculum has been defined in a number of ways in different time frames. In the post-1980s period, the debate about curriculum analysis becomes significant when scores of approaches question the scope of curriculum as being merely a political text at the expanse of providing due share to the significant societal issues of class, gender, and race. Focusing on the post-1980s period, this article presents curriculum analysis around the intertwined question of status quo and change which run parallel in the name of identity, nationhood, global citizenship, social equity, empowerment, etc. Based on the analysis of historiographical accounts of the post-1980s period, the data findings reveal that the field of curriculum analysis from 1980s onwards has turned from being a tight-bound structured being into an organic entity. The article reveals that discussions about curriculum analysis do not only suggest the acceptance or rejection of the power structures influencing the school curricula but these also look at the change prospects in the prevailing knowledge forms that may benefit and/or empower the deprived sections of society. Consequently, the emergent analysis signifies the fact that given multiple explanations about the scope of curriculum, curriculum analysis turns into a complicated conversation happening between and among all the stakeholders analysing it as a present contrivance devised in the light of the past but with an eye on the future.