Reclaiming the Curriculum

In a climate of increasingly complex social and political issues, mired with competing perspectives and ideologies, and the overabundance of information, there is a growing realisation that curriculum that sees learners as mere receptacles of knowledge traditions will not equip them sufficiently to live and work in the future (Eisner J, Curric Stud 32(2):343–357, 2000). Brown (New learning environments for the 21st century. In: Paper presented at the Forum for the Future of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.johnseelybrown.com/newlearning.pdf. Retrieved on 16 November 2012, 2005) argues that schools need to prepare learners to be conversant with knowledge and knowing – for learners to take an epistemic frame to learning. Adopting an epistemic frame to learning engages the learners to think conceptually. Hence, there is a need to promote high-quality education, with curriculum and pedagogies that prepare today’s learners to live in and constantly adapt knowledge in an increasingly complex and changing future. There is now a mind shift amongst educators that curriculum needs to foster deeper thinking, flexibility and synthesising of thoughts and ideas.