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This paper examines Claude Grignon's empirical study of lower levels of vocational education in France. The concepts of technical culture and the morality of technical processes are explored Grignon argues that the hidden curriculum of the Lycée for vocational education (Lycée d'Enseignement Professionel) socialises students into a world view in which social relations are conflated with technical relations, and take on the appearance of the certainty of technical processes. Social control is exerted by excluding the possibility of ambiguity and change from this deterministic frame of reference. In the second part of the paper we seek to show that some of Grignon's analytic concepts may offer useful perspectives for analysing British Further Education curricula, by applying the concepts of technical and `technicised' culture to some recent developments in British Further Education curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few years there has been a renewed interest in questions of citizenship and in particular its relation to young people. This has been allied to an educational discourse where the emphasis has been upon questions concerned with ‘outcome’ rather than with ‘process’– with the curriculum and methods of teaching rather than questions of understanding and learning. This paper seeks to describe and illuminate the linkages within and between these related discourses. It advocates an inclusive and relational view of citizenship-as-practice within a distinctive socio-economic and political, and cultural milieu. Drawing upon some empirical insights from our research we conclude that an appropriate educational programme would respect the claim to citizenship status of everyone in society, including children and young people. It would work together with young people rather than on young people, and recognise that the actual practices of citizenship, and the ways in which these practices transform over time are educationally significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the overall occupational culture of teachers, there are a number of different staff subcultures which compete for limited resources within a contracting educational system This paper concentrates upon the subculture of physical education by focusing on one department engaged in a teacher initiated curriculum innovation where competing perspectives of change are made evident It is suggested that coping strategies developed within the educational context of the school in order to enhance subject status may deflect teachers from considering the possibilities of change in their classroom practice [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the issue of culturally responsive music curriculum content in the context of a music course that I taught on three occasions for Nunavut Arctic College's Teacher Education Program (NTEP). The 19 Inuit students who attended the course were working toward achieving certification for teaching in Nunavut schools. One of the assignments asked the student teachers to invent and peer teach a musical activity that adapted some of the concepts, materials, and skills I brought to the course to something traditional to Inuit culture. Three questions emerged from this assignment: What themes would their musical activities address? What values and traditions would be embedded in these themes? How would these themes relate to the themes expressed in the wider culture—in Inuit-produced carvings, printmaking, weaving, legends, and poetry? A thematic analysis of the student-designed activities revealed a connection to the “land” in ways that we do not see in Eurocentric music curricula, and the chosen themes were consistent with those that are present in other Inuit cultural products. One student's assignment is presented as an example of a musical activity that positions the Inuit relationship with the land at the core of the activity, while drawing on ideas from both Inuit and qallunaat (non-Inuit) traditions. I conclude that Inuit-created musical activities that are derived from Inuit experience have a role to play in decolonizing the curriculum for Inuit students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: the decline in South Africa’s HIV infection rates especially among young women is encouraging. However, studies show that the 15-24-year-old cohort remains vulnerable. As they still report early sexual debut, being involved in sexual partnerships with older men as well as having unprotected sex. These risky sexual behaviors may be linked to factors such as the parent-child sexual health communication and the timing of the first talk. The quality of sexual health information received in school may also be important for enhancing healthier sexual behaviors. Aims and Objectives: to investigate the what, when and how sexual health communication occurs in rural South African families and to determine whether such communication patterns have changed over time. We also wanted to get an in-depth understanding of the roles played by culture, sexual health education and peers in the socialization of young women on sexual matters. Methods: a purposive sample of (n = 55) women who were 18-35 years old was selected and interviewed in focus group discussions (FGDs). Results: the FGD findings show that parent-child communication on sexual matters in rural communities is limited to messages that warn against pregnancy. It is also laden with cultural idioms that are not well explained. The school sexual health curriculum also fails to adequately equip adolescents to make informed decisions regarding sexual matters. All this seems to leave room for reception of misguided information from peers. Conclusions: findings highlight a need for designing interventions that can create awareness for parents on the current developmental needs and sexual behavior of adolescents. For adolescents programs would need to focus on providing skills on personal responsibility, and how to change behavior to enhance sexual health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In New Zealand, recent attempts to produce a national social studies curricula hove attracted fierce criticism and intense debate. As as in the United States and elsewhere, for broadly similar reasons, social studies remains a moral and ideological battleground for the major players involved in curriculum reform. All over the world, social studies is hailed as the subject which will create ideal future citizens. The New Zealand controversy, however, has given rise to no less than three attempts to produce an acceptable curriculum statement. Arguably the final document appears to be less controversial than its predecessors simply because it largely confines itself to outlining general aims rather than setting out specific goals. The reform process has clearly demonstrated the considerable difficulties involved in attempting to lay down what the ideal citizen of the future ought to think, know, and valise while at the same time giving lip-service to the concept of reflective inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the curriculum of culture and sports in education. Inclusion of sport in educational curriculum; Compulsion in education; Acceptance of culture as a curriculum component.

This article focuses on the education of Aborigines in Australia. With the attainment of nationhood in 1901, Australia's colonial history ended, for most Australians. However, for a significant minority of inhabitants, Australia's indigenous population, colonialism remained a political reality. Colonialism has now existed for almost 20 years. The article argues that theories of internal colonialism provide an important framework of analysis that can be used to explain policies and practices in Aboriginal education. One of the main features of colonialism is a deep belief in the racial-cultural superiority of the colonizing civilization and people. One form of ideology which legitimated nineteenth century racism in Australia was Christianity. The assumption of the superiority of White British Christian civilization allowed little respect for Aboriginal culture. In the case of Australian Aborigines, economic imperatives legitimated a definition of the oppressed as a race of savages. This in turn defined the limits of schooling and the curriculum. Missionaries used schools as instruments for the inculcation of civilization. English language was the dominant medium of instruction.

The article identifies the three traditions of case study in educational research, which are the anthropological, sociological and the use of case study in curriculum and program evaluation. These case studies have common characteristics when authors treat educational ethnography, participant observation, qualitative observation, case study or field study as synonyms. The ethnographic case study of a community or culture has been important to anthropological enquiry. Issues on cultural pluralism and culture conflict permeate research in the anthropological tradition. During the last decade, there has been a rapid growth in qualitative approaches to educational evaluation. Curriculum evaluators have developed a distinctive style of case study as a mode of disciplined inquiry.

Within recent years scholars in both sociology of education and curriculum studies have explored what it is about the school that reproduces class, race and gender relations that maintain an unequal social structure While it has long been recognized that school outcomes differ along these lines, the role that the school plays in creating differential outcomes and forms of consciousness that sustain fundamental inequalities and antagonisms has been largely ignored. This is as much true for scholars like Bowles and Gintis as it is for earlier functionalists. This article begins to fill this void by focusing on the relationship between the `hidden curriculum' and student culture Data presented here were gathered as part of a larger study on the `lived culture' of lower class black students in a community college (which I call Urban College) located in a large northeastern city in the United States I argue that, rather than `determine' student culture in any simple sense, the hidden curriculum and student culture emerge in relation to one another Each creates aspects of the other and neither can be discussed or analyzed separately The way in which elements of the hidden curriculum combine in a concrete culture to produce aspects of student consciousness is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]