Educator with an Anti-theory Bias to Curriculum Development Models

The contemporary education is characterized by the wide spread of a variety of theories which produce a profound impact on the development of curriculum. In this respect, it is possible to mention the conflict theory which, in spite of its criticism, still persists and is supported by many educators. On the other hand, there are educators who argue that this theory is inconsistent and it cannot influence the development of curriculum. Often such a view on the conflict theory is determined by the biased view on the theory as well as on education at large. In such a situation, it is extremely important to clearly reveal the extent to which such a biased view is unjust and indicate to possible ways of the implementation of the conflict theory in curriculum.

First of all, it should be said that some educators argue that in the contemporary education there are no significant distinctions between students in their social status. What is more, some educators argue that the contemporary education is characterized as highly liberal and all students are equal, while the attitude of teachers to students is just and deprived of any biases. However, such an attitude to the contemporary education and students is biased in its essence because the actual situation and the analysis of the contemporary education perfectly reveals that the presumable equality of all student and accessibility of education to all people has little in common with the real life.

In stark contrast, the contemporary education is characterized by the gigantic disparity between students and their educational opportunities and, what is probably even more important, there is an enormous gap between teachers and many of their students. To put it more precisely, it is not a secret that representatives of upper classes have larger educational opportunities since they can attend private schools, enter the best Universities, get the education they want or they need, while the majority of students representing lower classes are deprived of such opportunities and these students are forced to attend public schools where they cannot receive education which could provide them with good perspectives for their further education and their job opportunities are extremely low.

In such a situation, many teachers are influenced by the existing biases concerning the existing equality and accessibility of education. In actuality, biased educators prefer to ignore the socio-cultural background of students and treat all students equally, in spite of their level of development and knowledge and skills they have acquired. In such a way, biased educators do not pay attention to the background of their student and pose high demands, which students living in the poverty stricken areas cannot meet because the quality of education in public schools is consistently lower than in private schools for instance. As a result, on the level of the higher education students from different socio-cultural background will apparently have different opportunities and different level of knowledge and development, but this fact is ignored by biased educators in the development of the curriculum. Consequently, educators develop curriculum without taking into consideration the existing disparity between students and, therefore, the curriculum initially puts students in unequal position when the privileged classes are in an advantageous position compared to lower classes.

Moreover, it is necessary to remember that educators are representatives of the middle class and their biased attitude to students and the development of curriculum ignoring the difference in socio-cultural background of students lead to the imposing of the views of representatives of upper and middle classes on students originating from different socio-cultural background, including students from lower classes. Obviously, such a situation is determined by biased attitude of such educators to their students and contradicts to basic principles of the conflict theory which underlines that the social inequality does exist and, therefore, it needs to be taken into consideration in order to avoid the imposing of views of upper classes to students from lower classes and provide the latter with equal opportunities compared to the former.

In such a situation, it is apparently necessary to modify curriculum and change the biased attitude of educators.

Speaking about practical recommendations, it should be said that primarily it is necessary to better understand the socio-cultural background of each student and attempt to adapt curriculum to needs and the level of development of each student. Moreover, professional educators should take an active part in the life of the community of their students and develop an active social position of students helping them get integrated into the new community, at the University, for instance, and making students able to get rid of the biases concerning representative of other social classes. In such a way, educators should assist students  to realize their potential instead of limiting their opportunities through posing extremely high demands that some students cannot meet at the moment.



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