Social Oriented Curriculum

SOCIAL ORIENTED CURRICULUM  FOR SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION

INTRODUCTION

                   Social reconstruction is a philosophy focused on achieving social change. It strives to achieve social change, justice and equity by changing the various social systems upon which society rests. It is based on two major understandings.

·       First, society is likely to develop systems that marginalize and dominate others and thus need to change.

·       Secondly, achieving this change requires both creating a system that serves as a change agent and is open to changing it’s own purposes and structures as the social contexts in which it exists naturally evolve.

SOCIAL ORIENTED CURRICULUM

             Social Reconstructionist educators, who support a social oriented curriculum believe that education is mass produced and educational curricula should not focus primarily on knowledge acquisition only.

SOCIAL ORIENTED CURRICULUM; DEFINITION

v Social oriented curriculum focuses on student experience, critical thinking and the talking of action on very real social problems like hunger, discrimination, poverty, violence and war.

v Social oriented curriculum states that people can individually and collectively create social change and feel that this empowerment begins in our schools.

v Social oriented curriculum restructures educational systems with the aim that students come out better prepared to both recognize and to manage the issues, ideologies, problems and values in the society.

PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL ORIENTED CURRICULUM

1.     Social oriented curriculum is based on ‘ Social Reconstruction Ideology’ .

2.     Curriculum is viewed from social perspective.

3.     It is assumed that our society is unhealthy and its survival is threatened, because the usual devices developed by the society are incapable of doing their work.

4.     Social Reconstruction Ideology assumes that something can be done to keep society from destroying itself.

5.     Education is means to solve society’ s problems.

6.     Educate the students to make them analyze themselves in relation to society , see and understand the problems of society.

7.     Develop a vision of a better world based on social justice and actualize that vision.

8.     To save our society we must develop a vision of a better society and try to reconstruct our society.

9.     Education has the power to educate people to understand and analyze social problems, envision a world were problems don’t exist and so as to bring that vision into life.

ACTIVITIES IN SOCIAL ORIENTED CURRICULUM  FOR SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION

1)     Student inquiry and questioning and meaningful dialogue to build a foundational awareness of various major social issues.

2)     Community based learning and outside the classroom experiences are given importance in the educational experience.

3)     Activities that promote self development and realization of a humanizing understanding of others.

4)     Group discussion is a social means of educating a group of persons.

MAIN FOCUSES OF SOCIAL ORIENTED CURRICULUM

Ø  Racism

Ø  War

Ø  Sexism

Ø  Poverty

Ø  Pollution

Ø  Worker exploitation

Ø  Climate change

Ø  Corporate exploitation

Ø  Crime

Ø  Political corruption

Ø  Population exploitation

Ø  Energy shortage

Ø  Illiteracy

Ø  Inadequate health care

Ø  Unemployment

SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION THROUGH SOCIAL- ORIENTED CURRICULUM

Reconstructionists feel that the curriculum should address contemporary social problems and even social action projects aimed at reconstructing society. They interested in the relation of the curriculum to social, political, and economic development of society, believe that through the curriculum educators will effect social change and ultimately create a more just society. Brameld outlined the major features of this approach to curriculum. He noted that reconstructionists were committed to creating a new culture. Brameld was conceived that in the midst of a revolutionary period, the times demanded that educators harness the school for social reconstruction. The continuing problems at the national and global level war, poverty among affluence, crime, racial conflict, unemployment, political oppression and disregard for the environment all called for a major shift in society.

            If society was to survive, it would be because the common people in the industrial system and the public service system would gain control. Once in control , these persons would release and equitably use society’ s resources to solve the problems of democracy. Brameld placed the working people in a new sense of collective strength, in control of all principle institutions and resources. This was necessary if the world was to become genuinely democratic. He challenged teachers to join forces with these organized working people.

            Brameld also believed that the school should help the individual to develop as a social being  and also a skilled planner of the social reality. The individual must come to learn that he\ she must satisfy his \ her personal needs through social consensus. The schools not only had this obligation to educate children in the value of the collective they also needed to point out the urgency for the change.

            The fact that reconstructionists’ stress the notion of change and the needs to plan for tomorrow bring in mind a series of pressing questions.

SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION CURRICULUM

          The social reconstruction curriculum has the primary purpose of engaging the learner in analyzing the many severe problems confronting human kind. However, the exact content and objectives are to be decided by those who actually create such a curriculum. The curriculum is to engage the students in a critical analysis of the local, national and international community.

ADVANTAGES AND SHORTCOMINGS OF SOCIAL ORIENTED CURRICULUM

1.    There are two primary arguments for socially centered curriculum designs ; they can directly contribute to the needs of the society for concerns and are therefore of great significance and interest to the students.

2.    The advocates of this approach believe that curriculum workers should organize learning experiences in terms of the major activities of mankind as he lives in culture. Thus this approach provides for learning experiences that are closely related to the life activities of the learner.

3.    It is more likely that under this design the school would utilize a great deal of real experience, providing a wide variety of learning activities outside the school itself. Therefore , the learning experiences are more significant and meaningful to the learner.

4.    The approach contributes directly to the obligations of the school. Since the school has a primary responsibility to perpetuate the basic social values held by the society, the advocates of this design feel that it best enable the school to discharge this obligation.

5.    This approach provides for better integration of learning experiences since the units of study would utilize whatever specialized aspects of subject matter might be pertinent to the problem under consideration.

CONCLUSION

          Social oriented curriculum is important and relevance in the present day context, because our society is filled with a lot of social, economic, and political problems. In order to eradicate these problems, we must possess a social oriented curriculum in our education system.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Suma, S. (2016) . Understanding disciplines and subjects. Chennai : Smrithi Publications.

Balakrishnan, V.(2016) .Course material for B.Ed. Chennai : TNTEU.

Curriculum theories in urban education. Retrieved from , www.weebly. com.