The society is long being interested to know the ways in which the new generations are being prepared for the citizenship. In present days, there interest might better be described as a growing concern, specifically in the democratic societies. The main purpose of education is to allow the pupils to find their paths towards reaching their dreams and to create long term learners who are well prepared for both future as well as modern world (Macedo 2018). It aims at empowering the students to influence the world in a constructive and positive manner. Education serves as one of the most important way of bringing about the deserving and desired change in the society and the world. It is for developing the new generation comprised of admirable individuals and hence, resulting in a growth of the good and efficient people. As stated by Srivastava and Rao (2015), education is for gaining knowledge in order to implant the forms of good conduct and for acquiring practical competency. Hence, they said that the fundamental purpose of education is relocating the excellent methods into the new generation in a way that they could consciously adapt proper habits and to understand what is good to accept and what is bad to reject. This paper is going to elaborate on the question that might be raising in the mind of each of the other individual that does the current curriculum prepare the new generations for their future role as citizens in a democracy.
The modern democracy posits that every individual has the right to vote and that of being represented as well. It also supposed that everyone are eligible, which are completely contrary to the Ancient Greek democracy, which used to consider the citizens of it to be Athenian men of age and used to the exclude the women, slaves, children and anyone who was not considered to be an Athenian (Murphy, Katula and Hoppmann 2013). However, to sum up, the part that education plays in a democratic world is to form independent citizens who are capable enough to think for themselves and that too without having to casually follow the thing that said “above them”. Apparently, it is also there to oppose the old existing regimes which preceded it through allowing the individuals to access better jobs and hence, being capable to gain a social status that is higher than the ones which they were born in.
However, while coming to the point it is essential to understand what is curriculum in the first place. Although, it is indeed a complicated question to answer and this is due to the fact that in some of the European languages, there is no specific method of translating this term while there is countries, where this word is in a very common use, might define it in numerous ways. In English, the word ‘curriculum’ refers to a narrow yet specific way to mention to the subject matter or the content which is been taught in the schools (Young 2013). The content and the form of a curriculum are the integral parts of the common process by which the society reconstructs its own definition of a good society. It is to note that curriculum generally questions about what to teach the students and how to teach them that and these themselves are a specific expression of political questions regarding whether the prevailing cultural, political and economic life patterns ought to be transformed or reproduced (Nelson et al. 2014). Hence, the relationship in between the society and the curriculum is always corresponding as, each of them serves in order to reproduce as well as to transform the other one. As different social groups who have difference in their political views regarding the future direction and shape of the society also has different views and opinions regarding what the content of the curriculum must be. The practice and policy of curriculum are always stayed as one of the major subjects of conflicts and disagreements within the different parties who hold different opinions on the nature of the society as well as on the role of the education in the transformation and reproduction of the society.
Curriculum plays a very important role in the future of the students and it does contribute to their wellbeing, social skills and prosperity (Kaufman 2013). The development and structure of curriculum considers many different features comprising of how it is organized, the goals that are to be achieved in the education, learning, assessment, the process of teaching and last but not the least, how the curriculum would offer for the future students or learners. From the viewpoint of socio-cultural and development, the design and the implementation of a particular curriculum that meets the general and basic requirements of the pupils is the foundation for proper and relevant education (Richards 2013). The process of education depends on a well organized and systematic set of programs of induction of the pupil about the manner and activities of the society and environment in which it is taking place. This means that the process of education takes place with a pre-planned path that is generally guided by the set of curriculum (Van Oers and Duijkers 2013). The function of education has certain implications that are concrete for the shape of curriculum. Hence, the curriculum aims at reshaping the pupils as well as the society in order to become what was pre-planned for them and this is the area where the curriculum and the policies, both are complementary.
The education in the today’s world is considered to be the field of investment by the people (Wagner and Compton 2015). It is just like any other field where they invest. The impact of the exposure to a curriculum on the learners is the major component of any curriculum which generally interests and attracts the parents or the investors in the education system the most. This is because it is considered to be the main reason why the education is being provided to their children in the very first place. An education can never be planned in absence of some stance for the development (O’Flaherty and Philips 2015). The formal education could not be imagined in other ways. Hence, the main issue lies on the nature of the guidance or say, the type and structure of curriculum.
The former efforts for drawing the attention to the political and social functions of the curriculum are based on the belief ‘hidden curriculum’ (McLaren 2016). It is to be noted that the reproduction theory has made an attempt to illustrate and give an explanation for the ways in which curriculum serves to assist the existing economic, political and cultural life patterns of the society. In case if a curriculum stays static in the dynamic society, particularly in the times of fast social change, it is possible that the education that is mainly meant for the purpose of inducing the young generation into the modern society and promoting intelligent understanding of the same, would seek only for the values and requirements that no longer do sustain (Young et al. 2014). Curriculum is a way that is used by the educational institutions to prepare the pupil for participating as active and protective members of the society and to change the society in better living environment (Lipsky and Gartner 2013). It is anything that every educational system strives to achieve and implement within their students.
The further inquires on the subject of reproduction functions of the education has been established the fact that the education alone cannot bring in development. The educational reforms intended to guide the socio economic development so that it goes hand in hand with the reform in the other environmental surface such as the technological, political and industrial fields. Like, for example, in the eighteenth century, right after Industrial revolution in the Europe the true progress in the society was not initially realized. Later, it was felt that the revolution truly has brought in prosperity with the implications on the new social order (Smelser 2013). However, the new social order then needed a whole new education curriculum for the country that would address the requirements of that new order. In the concept of democracy at every fonts of the societal development, comprising education then became the cornerstone on which the new order was developed. It was the point from which the development in the Western Europe took off.
In the modern politics, the concept of democracy has been accepted all round the world as it offers a legitimacy for the government that is ruling in order to manage the societal affairs (Fukuyama 2017). It is to be noted that democracy is not only a political concept but is in fact a moral concept as well. It not only offers criteria for managing the society but it also provides a foundation for generating the moral principles that are necessary for governing the conducts of the people towards each other in the society. These principles extend to the government as well as all the other existing agencies.
It is to be noted that in a democratic nation, morality is always been subjected to clear rules that are obtained from the basic concept of the term democratic itself (Finer 2018). The rules of it necessarily comprise respect for freedom for each and every person within a society along with ample of scope for the common people for participating in the government and equal treatment for each and every individual belonging from the democratic society. There are many things of consequence to the planning of a education curriculum that are been followed from this, particularly in the education for development. The education system must make sufficient planning for the moral development in context to democracy for which the educational provision and planning is being managed. The pupil should be initiated into a democratic morality in the democratic society. With the same, the planning and provision of the education should in themselves conform to the moral criterion that is generated by the concept of democracy. This simply means that the education curriculum should be planned in a way so that it promotes the equality of the provision as well as entitlement for all (Rodger 2013).
However, education or curriculum though by itself could not have the potential to change the economic, social and political structures of the nation directly (Gruenewald 2014). Education could contribute to the democratic citizenship and democracy of the country in two ways. Firstly, through providing equal opportunities to the pupil belonging from different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds and secondly, by preparing the pupils and citizens who know, understand and opt for democracy through teaching them a specific knowledge, values , attitudes or skills that are required for becoming a democratic citizens.
In many of the present curriculum, the government has introduced citizenship education for the pupil. Citizenship education has been regarded as one of the primary essentials of the present curriculum of social studies (Cogan and Derricott 2014). In high schools, special attentions are been paid on this subject but it is also to e noted that in the school level education, no such attention is paid to the teaching and learning of citizenship education. Schools are not only regarded as the institutions which impart certain skills and knowledge to the pupils, but it in fact, is also an environment which helps them get socialize (Kezar 2013). The schools that teach its pupils for actively participating in the democracy are the institutions which reflect the democratic principles and that too not only in words, but in deed as well.
With the appearance of the new technologies being instilled in the current school curriculum, the teachers or educators and the school leaders are starting to revise and rethink all the surface of the data in the classroom. Very new and innovative methods of collecting data are constantly being developed with an aim to offer new options for the current formative, alternative assessments and the culminating summative (Waddock and Lozano 2013). Though several challenges in the design and planning of the curriculum might arise because of the advancement in the integration of the technology, still the schools are however welcoming and embracing the future. There are several trends that are emerging in this 21st century for the classrooms. The very first is the digital literacy. The introduction of digitally learning or digital literacy curriculum has been implanted in this modern world which is based on the developmental stages of the students (Fichman, Dos Santos and Zheng 2014). Students now are given education through video presentation as well. High numbers of teachers are using the technology in their classrooms that is permitting the pupils to get engaged in the content even more. There are some schools that are adopting the formal digital curriculum and the digital literacy plans (Voogt et al. 2013). With the same, it is also to be noted that in context to encourage children to be a better citizen who promotes equality and oneness in the democratic society, the modern curriculum is encouraging collaborative learning in the classrooms. The new applications are helping the classroom teachers to become interactive and innovation at the same time. This new trend is further expected to grow multiple times in the upcoming years. Right interactive whiteboards in the class and using Google Docs to implementing new and innovative applications in order to create the activities and quizzes, it is really an exciting time for the collaborative learning in the education curriculum (Polly 2014). One of the best example that is worth highlighting in this context is ‘Kahoot’, a game based learning platform that are been used in the classrooms of many of the educational institutions around the world. At absolutely zero cost, the educators can now download and install (Stoyanova et al. 2016). The teachers and the educators might conceive of the fun puzzles and the learning activities in order to enhance the engagement of the student.
In contrast to this it is also to be mentioned that the civic education is not considered of such importance in the curriculum of the modern society which was indeed of an utmost importance in the earlier society. Hence, it the curriculum makers must consider that civic education should be given prime importance in the schools today. This is because an education is of no use if it fails to make people a better citizen.
To sum up, it can be said that the current curriculum does prepare the pupils for their future role in a democracy to some extent but not in an effective way. A democratic society works more effectively when the entire individual willingly participates in the economic, social, governmental and political growth processes of their respective communities and when the political and social structures are well organized, on the basis of democratic principles which focus on respect for the individual rights. The general and the civic education present in the current curriculum though do contribute in preparing better citizens, but more is needed. The curriculum must be designed in such a way that the pupil could develop the needed democratic abilities and skills along with the moral and ethical values which reflects the democratic principles and ideals of a democratic society. It must implement the knowledge of democracy within the pupil and motivate them to get engaged and act accordingly by making them learn and understand the importance of doing the same.
References:
Cogan, J. and Derricott, R., 2014. Citizenship for the 21st century: An international perspective on education.
Fichman, R.G., Dos Santos, B.L. and Zheng, Z.E., 2014. Digital innovation as a fundamental and powerful concept in the information Systems curriculum. MIS quarterly, 38(2).
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Gruenewald, D.A., 2014. Place-based education: Grounding culturally responsive teaching in geographical diversity. In Place-based education in the global age (pp. 161-178). Routledge.
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Kezar, A., 2013. Examining non-tenure track faculty perceptions of how departmental policies and practices shape their performance and ability to create student learning at four-year institutions. Research in Higher Education, 54(5), pp.571-598.
Lipsky, D.K. and Gartner, A., 2013. 1. Inclusive education: a requirement of a democratic society. World Yearbook of Education 1999: Inclusive Education, 12.
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McLaren, P., 2016. Critical pedagogy. This Fist Called My Heart: The Peter McLaren Reader, Volume I, p.27.
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Nelson, L., Cushion, C.J., Potrac, P. and Groom, R., 2014. Carl Rogers, learning and educational practice: Critical considerations and applications in sports coaching. Sport, Education and Society, 19(5), pp.513-531.
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