The Cultural Politics in Local Curriculum: An Introductory Essay on Critical Studies in Rural Education

The Cultural Politics in Local Curriculum: An Introductory Essay on Critical Studies in Rural Education

Authors

  • Omsin Jatuporn Faculty of Education, Chiangmai University.

Keywords:

local curriculum, rural education, place-based education, critical pedagogy, cultural politics

Abstract

The article aimed at understanding the cultural politics in local curriculum by reviewing and analyzing the relevant documents. There were three main objectives in this study as follows: 1) the theoretical presentation of conceptions and boundaries of localness in local curriculum 2) the analysis and discussion on the re-conceptualization of curriculum as junctures of discourse 3) the discussion of issues and concerns regarding the contested space in rural education through local curriculum. The author will propose the framework for developing local curriculum based on critical education theory in the next article. The most important aim of this article is to re-conceptualize the curriculum conception which perceives curriculum as text and discourse. Therefore, local curriculum does not neutrally exist and holds no political orientations. Local curriculum, instead, is a space for cultural politics in the basic education context that is deeply entrenched in contested definition of localness in both rural and urban areas under the administrative control of Thailand’s Ministry of Education. 

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Published

2019-04-23

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1 (2019): January-June

Section

บทความวิชาการ (Academic Article)