CURRICULUM-DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION IN THE DEVELOPING-COUNTRIES

This paper challenges the ‘rational technical’ and ‘consensus’ views of curriculum planning in developing countries. It traces the development of education in colonial societies, and while noting the potentially contradictory functions within the colonial state of capital accumulation and legitimation, argues that the former took precedence. Educational policies in the post-colonial state are analysed, showing trends towards greater inequalities and thus a support for social reproduction theory. The conclusion is to focus less on empirical-analytical arid practical/social knowledge in schools, and more on critical emancipatory knowledge in order to understand and transform social reality. © 1990, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.