Curriculum is defined as a planned learning opportunities offered by the organization to learners and the experiences learners encounter when the curriculum is implemented. A curriculum is an attempt to communicate the essential principles and features of an educational proposal in such a form that it is open to critical scrutiny and capable of effective translation into practice. A curriculum is the formulation and implementation of an educational proposal to be taught and learned within a school or other institution and for which that institution accepts responsibility at three levels, its rationale, its actual implementation and its effects.
The curriculum is part of the culture in a specific context and culture is defined as “that complex whole, which includes knowledge, belief art, morals, law, customs and other capabilities acquired by man as a member of society.” E B Taylor (1871, p. 1) and it is also defined as “ culture is transferred, it creates a heritage or a social tradition, that it is learned, it is not a manifestation in particular content, of a man’s genetic constitution, and that it is shared. ”Talcott Parsons (1952, p.15). Culture is a complex term. Culture is both a product of social interaction as well as a determinant of it. Culture forms the basis of our communications with others; it is a cultural exchange of both shared and different experiences. Subject based curriculum focuses on the content of the curriculum. The designing resembles usually, to the textbook written for the specific
References: Apple, M. W. & Beane, J. A. (1999). Lessons from democratic schools. In M. W. Apple & J. A. Beane (Eds.), Democratic schools: Lessons from the chalk face (pp. 118-123). Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Bernstein, B. (1971). On the classification and framing of educational knowledge. In M. Young (Ed.), Knowledge and control: New directions for the sociology of education (pp. 47-69). London: Collier-Macmillan. Stenhouse, L. (1975). defining the curriculum problem. volume 5, 1-5. Young, M. (2008). Bringing knowledge back in: From social constructivism to socialrealism in the sociology of education. London: Routledge. Young, M. (2009c). Curriculum theory and the problem of knowledge: A personal journey and an unfinished project. In E. Short & L. J. Waks (Eds.), Leaders in Curriculum Studies: Intellectual Self Portraits (pp. 219-230). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers