Efforts to reform teacher education should include careful reconsideration of what teachers learn about curriculum design and instructional methodology. The selection and organization of school knowledge have significant social, political, and ethical implications that are ignored by traditional, rationalistic assumptions about educational…

Traces the evolution of the curriculum designed for Black education in South Africa since the colonial penetration of the 1650s to the present. Argues that the curriculum reflects sociopolitical influences and that postapartheid curriculum reform is limited by extracurricular factors. (FMW)

Provides an overview and an examination of educational didactics in Sweden. In this context, didactics refers to the study of what content is chosen and how it is taught. Some theorists have extended this to include how students conceptualize what they are taught. Discusses the conflicting schools of thought. (MJP)

Argues against the limited definition of spiritual education as strictly concerned with the mystical and transcendental. Maintains that a broader application of spiritual education can and should be offered. Asserts that this application needs to be developed in terms of curricular objectives and assessment. (MJP)

Urges a reframing of the social sciences curriculum in terms of the socioeconomic interests of the disadvantaged. Proposes a curriculum specifically designed to expose the ideological and political advantages enjoyed by the dominant culture. Includes specific activities to promote empowerment among the disadvantaged. (MJP)

Charts the changes in Namibian curriculum policy reflecting the recent independence from South Africa and the dismantling of apartheid. Although originally conceived as a radical socialist state, political realities quickly created policies of reconciliation within Namibia. Educational policy has focused on the establishment of a post-colonial…

Criticizes the concept that secular, rationalist thought is more objective than religious thought. Maintains that all human inquiry and interaction is rife with subjective bias and assumptions. Defends the teaching of religious subjects in public schools on this basis and calls for an "intersubjective" approach (acknowledging rationalist…

Contends that curriculum theorists often distinguish between the formal or official curriculum from the actual or hidden curriculum. Argues that the hidden curriculum always has a normative, or moral, component and that educators have a responsibility to make the hidden curriculum as explicit as possible. (CFR)

This curriculum analysis of black South African education considers conflict and change in historical, contemporary, and postapartheid contexts. Part 1, "The Historical Context," interprets curriculum evolution, beginning with the evangelical curriculum for slaves in 1658 and concluding with formalization of racism in the apartheid…