Curriculum Policy Research

Curriculum policy is the action programme and norms fOr regulating andcontrolling the aim and pattem of curriculum development so as to adjust the differentneeds within a certain social order and education domain by the responsibledepartment of national educational administration. lt can be divided into threedifferent patterns, they are called centralized cun-iculum po1icy, decentralizedcutriculum policy and selMecision cutriculum policy in the worldwide. Anddifferent pattern of curriculum policy not only means diffeent distribution ofcuniculum power and the satisfaction of differeat needs but also decides the depth,range and levels of currculum reform. Therefore, it is not only a basic problem forany country to consider in curriculum policy-making but also a puzzling problem incurriculum decision whether to implement the centralized curriculum policy ordecentralized curriculum policy It is most important to maintain both meritswhereas to eliminate each one-sideness through bringing into a new distribution ofcutriculum powef, new value ideas of curriculum poIicy and new model of curriculumpolicy--making. In this dissertaion, a new concept that is called the sharedcurriculum is been put forward in order to explore the new way, new value idea andnew pattem that can reflect the social change and be conformed to the requirement ofcutriculum reform. lt is by no means without foundation, however, it is a new ideacreated through absorption and merging the tfadition and history of cutriculum policythrough creation.The shared curriculum, as a new concePt about cutriculum policy, has threemcanings f First, it is a ideal State of the distribution of cutriculum power, that is,each can have confirmed and rational curriculum power and keep a certain tensionamong the centra1 government, state govemment and school itself Second, it is aso-called transcendence value idea of curriculum policy, that is, the value idea whichcan transcend the integrated value idea and characteristic value idea of curriculumpolicy. And the third, it is a new pattern ofcutriculum policy-making.This new concept is based on the historical exploration and value exploration ofcurriculum policy lt is an ideal state of curriculum policy that can be reached stepby step. It is also feasible in the present China background with political, cultural,economical, technological, legal and administrational condition, though we shouldtake some measures that we should transcend both the centralized way of thinking andthe decentralized way of thinking. In order to achieve this aim, we should changecontrolling strategies into participation strategies, change Iooking for differences intofinding commonsense, and change ertreme thinking into neutral thinking. We alsoneed to reinforce the exPression ability of curriculum power of the people concernedwith the cuniculum policy so as to make the tWo-way relationship not the one-wayrelationship among the celltraI govemmeni, state govemment, school, governmentofficials, pedagogy theory researchers, teachers, parens and students. Andeventually, all the people concerned with the cuniculum policy are able to participatein the progress of the curriculum policy-making, to express their desires of themselves,and to make the healthy development of the curriculum together...