The role of philosophy in

curriculum development
By Craig A. Cunningham, Ph.D.
Center for School Improvement
University of Chicago

Agenda

What is philosophy and what do philosophers do?

What are some examples of philosophical viewpoints?
What is curriculum development and what do curriculum
developers do?
What are some curriculum development viewpoints?
What are some philosophical questions that come up in
curriculum development?
What can curriculum developers learn from philosophers, and
vice versa?
Some ideas about philosophys role in Jewish education
Questions and discussion

What is philosophy and what do

philosophers do?

Etymology: philos + sophia (love of wisdom)

Professional philosophy was invented in Ancient Greece by
private tutors or teachers (called sophists) who trained citizens
for participation in democratic public life (Socrates, Plato,
Aristotle)
Historically, philosophy was used to refer to any intellectual
discourse; that which was not immediately practical or material
Natural philosophy used to refer to science, that is, involving
natural events, until scientists decided that the term
overemphasized reason at the expense of observation
Speculative philosophy used to refer to all other kinds of
philosophy, concerned with existence, goodness, beauty, truth

What is philosophy and what do

philosophers do? continued

Religion was not traditionally considered philosophy at all;

rather, it was a set of beliefs and practices in which people
related to God
Philosophy and religion come together in theology, which
applies speculative techniques to questions about the nature of
God and of right and wrong
Theology was invented by Thomas Acquinas, Ibn Rushd, and
Moses Maimonides in their pursuit of a defensible view of God
and morality
They were each severely criticized by their own people for so
doing, but they exemplify the drive toward reason (making sense
of experience and culture) that defines humanity
Many famous philosophers have blurred the line between religion
and philosophy: Spinoza, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche

What is philosophy and what do

philosophers do? continued

So how do philosophers do their work?

Textual exegesis: close reading and writing about ways of
interpreting readings
Logical analysis: setting up systems of entities and statements
about those entities and testing formal relationships among them
Hypothetical exploration: thought experiments about what
might be true and the consequences of that
Intuitive phenomenology: using ones own experiences and
reactions as data for understanding self, others, the world
Genetic analysis: tracing ideas through history in the attempt to
understand how words are used today
Pragmatic participation: rolling up ones sleeves and getting to
work to solve a real problem, while using ones head to seek
superior solutions

What is philosophy and what do

philosophers do? continued

Some philosophers have tried to make philosophy practical by

applying it to problems of the real world: Aristotle, John Locke,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Dewey
Each of these found in education a practical arena ripe for
philosophical analysis
Despite their efforts, these days, philosophy tends to be viewed
as an academic discipline focused on speculation about itself:
that is, most scholarly philosophy is about philosophy and not
much else
Unfortunately, most people consider philosophy too academic,
intellectual, pie-in-the-sky, ivory-tower,eggheaded, and irrelevant
Philosophy is pretty much banished from K-12 schools, American
political discourse, foreign policy, and economic life

What are some examples of philosophical

viewpoints?

Idealism: ideas are really real while material things are illusory or
fleeting; truth is absolute but perhaps unknowable to (ordinary)
humans (Plato)
Materialism: ideas are illusory while physical and economic
forces control the world; truth is irrelevant since power is
everything (Karl Marx)
Pragmatism: ideas are real things only insofar as they affect
action; ideas are true only insofar as they work in action (John
Dewey)
Formalism: ideas are interesting in themselves and need no
connection to things or actions to be the focus of inquiry; truth
can be derived from careful understanding of statements and
counter-statements (Bertrand Russell)

What is curriculum development and what

do curriculum developers do?

Traditionally, curriculum development has been seen as planning

for a sustained process of teaching and learning in a formal
institutional setting
Curriculum comes from Latin word for race course
The curriculum can be likened to a race (or, better, obstacle)
course through a given terrain of human endeavor
The assumptions usually are:
Time is too short to allow for learner self-direction
The real world is too messy a place for learners and other
immature people
Messy reality needs to be translated into schemas and logical
orderings (subject matter) so immature minds can grasp it quickly
and avoid wasting time, materials, or injuring the learner or others

What is curriculum development and what

do curriculum developers do?

Curriculum development always involves:

Assumptions about the nature of learners (and teachers)

Assumptions about the purposes of schools
Assumptions about what kind of knowledge is important
Assumptions about what kind of world we live in
Assumptions about what kind of world we want to live in
(Different curriculums and different schools are more or
less likely to reveal these assumptions)

What is curriculum development and what

do curriculum developers do?

While curriculum development seems on its

face to be a very specialized, technical,
almost clerical function, .
it can also be thought of as:

The intelligent management of how learners

interact with the world so that
It forms learners values, dispositions, habits,
selves

Curriculum development is the creation of

a better future

What are some curriculum development

viewpoints?

Viewpoints vary along a number of

dimensions:

Ultimate goal
Nature of child
Definition of learning
Selection of texts for study
Relative importance of knowledges and skills
Value of student interest and choice
Whether truth/goodness/beauty are predefined or
indeterminate

Examples of Curriculum

Drivers Education Curriculum Examples

Missouri Drivers Education Curriculum: Core

Competencies and Skills
Environmentally-healthy drivers education
curriculum

Judaic Studies Curriculum Examples

The Perfect Shabbat Egg Salad

Jewish History Tour

What are some philosophical questions

that come up in curriculum development?

Should children be coddled or pushed?

How important is it to achieve uniformity of behavior or belief?
Should individual differences be exalted or denied?
Should students be able to choose what they learn?
Should schools seek to change (improve) society or sustain it?
Should tolerance and understanding outweigh nationalism and distrust?
(What is the schools role in this?)
Should everything that is learned have practical or economic value?
Should schools seek to further parental goals or goals defined outside
the family?
What are the relative values of reading, writing, figuring, playing,
working, sweating, debating, talking, listening, agreeing, disagreeing,
relaxing, persisting, resisting, conforming, participating, expressing,
creating, problem-solving, thinking, experimenting?

What can curriculum developers learn

from philosophers, and vice versa?

Philosophers can help curriculum developers:

Be more explicit about assumptions

Be more willing to challenge assumptions
Understand more consequences of choices
Expand sense of possibilities and alternatives

Curriculum developers can help philosophers:

Focus on what is really important

Understand the consequences of their ideas and theories
Come out of the ivory tower
See that philosophical analysis can make a difference in
the world

Some ideas about philosophys role in

Jewish education

Jewish cultural value on education comes from ancient

relationship to the WORD
The Bible as text has always been key to Jewish education;
Jewish educators are more likely to take reading and discussion
of reading seriously
Philosophical inquiry is taught (to some extent) in context of
hallachic discourse
Jewish education spans the entire range of alternative viewpoints
and assumptions
Jewish schools have more sense of ultimate purposes than
secular schools
Jewish schools are more subject to parental will than other
schools
Jewish schools may be more likely to increase nationalism than
other schools

Questions and discussion

To get us started:

Choose a partner
Think for a minute about the last time you were involved in
a dispute about curriculum in your school
Describe your disputes to each other
Choose one dispute to focus on
Think about the philosophical issues underlying the dispute
Did philosophy play a role in the resolution?
How might philosophy have helped to resolve the dispute?
Be prepared to share your discussion with the group

The end

To contact me:

My home page: http://craigcunningham.com

My email: c-cunningham@uchicago.edu
My phone: 773-702-4885