CONTENT DEVELOPMENT FOR ESTONIAN GENERAL COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOLS: CONTEXT, CURRICULA AND SCHOOL PRACTICE 1991-2016

Urve Läänemets

doi:10.17770/ercs2016.2182

Authors

Urve Läänemets Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (EE)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17770/ercs2016.2182

Keywords:

curriculum development, content of learning, principles for selection of the content, socio-political context influencing reforms

Abstract

The issues of selection of the content for general comprehensive schools has become a highly debated issue in the 21^st century and several countries have turned special attention to it. Estonian experience of curriculum development has shown, how important different contexts have been influencing educational reforms. The processes of educational policy making and research in the field of specification of the content in 1991-2016 have been analysed using Crawford’s specification of different contexts: the context of global, regional and local influences; the context of text production (production of curriculum documents) and the context of practice. General as well as subject specific principles can be used for selection of the content of traditional as well as new/emerging schools subjects and there should be rational proportions between the traditional and innovative content of learning for general comprehensive schools. Ahistorical and non-theoretical approaches can become counterproductive considering the school culture within a particular society.

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