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Understanding the Macro-context of Teaching Environmental Education: A Case Study from Queensland, 1989-1991

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

John Fien
John Fien*
Affiliation:
Division of Environmental Sciences, Griffith University, Queensland
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Extract

Any discussion of curriculum should consider the social setting, especially the relationship between schools and society and its influence on curriculum decisions…. Curriculum decisions take place in a complex social setting, through demands that are imposed by society and filter down to schools (Ornstein and Hunkins, 1988: 114).

Context is an important element in understanding the nature of the curriculum in any field and its goals. Thus, Cornbleth (1988: 89) describes curriculum as “an ongoing social activity shaped by various contextual influences within and beyond the classroom”. She argues that curriculum is a “contextualized social process” which:

… cannot be understood adequately … without attention to its setting or context. Curriculum is contextually shaped…. (C)urriculum emerges from the dynamic interaction of action, reflection and setting (Cornbleth, 1990: 6-7)

Similarly, Berlak and Berlak (1981: 24) write of the need to investigate teachers' decision making in terms of “the social, cultural and political forces and structures that are omnipresent in all social situations”. Sharp and Green (1975) argue that comprehensive explanations of teaching require an investigation of the “sociology of situations, their underlying structure and interconnections and the constraints and contingencies they impose” (p. 25).

Type
Research Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 8 , 1992 , pp. 77 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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