Study On The Legitimacy Of Primary And Secondary School’Curricula Knowledge In America

Serving as the basic organization form of educational knowledge， curriculumknowledge is selected from the production and accumulation of life knowledge of humansociety and constitutes the sequence of educational content facilitating the growth anddevelopment of the individuals. The target， direction and specifications of personnel trainingof school education will eventually merge in the implementation process ofcurriculumknowledge and find their ways to basic implementation by realizing the value ofcurriculum knowledge. Therefore, curriculum knowledge carries school vision and goals andbecomes one of the most critical link in the school education. However, the selection anddesigning process of school curriculum knowledge is not a value-neutral natural process. It issubject to certain patterns of distribution of power in society, exhibiting the features of socialideology and the results of multiple games among different social powers and interests.Therefore, rendered in the intellectual framework of the school curriculum, the content ofcurriculum knowledge dynamically generated with value conversion is a kind of value-given“legal knowledge” or “official knowledge”. Meanwhile, the legitimacy of the changes ofschool curriculum knowledge has profound historical reasons，resulting from the interactionof social politics, economy, culture and education within specific historical periods.In the new era，the core issue of national education reform revolves around the choiceof knowledge and the following of whose value orientation to form the logical structure of theschool curriculum. As a response to the above question, education and curriculum reforms arelaunched one after another in the fields of educational practice around the world withcurriculum reform in primary and secondary schools as breakthrough point in most countries.Among these aggressive curriculum reforms of basic education， the United States ofAmerica carries out the most striking reform practice in primary and secondary schoolcurriculum knowledge and exerts far-reaching influences both on the American society andthe other countries’curriculum reforms of basic education all over the world with its’ longtime, large range and penetrating exploration in this field. Thus, it becomes the focus ofresearch and learning through the academic circles on the world. Researches in all countriesextract its’ beneficial experiences and gain effective theory and practice support for the basiceducation reform of their own countries.Based on the background of social education reform and research, this study,selectingthe United States as object country, is to explore the legitimacy of the United States’curriculum knowledge with analyzing the connotation of legitimacy of curriculum as its’logical starting point. By interpreting the legitimacy of the United States’ primary andsecondary school curriculum knowledge and analyzing the effectiveness and cost of thereforms, the study gains insights into the benefit balance between the curriculum knowledgeand the subjects of rights constructing curriculum knowledge and finds the answers to the questions that on what conditions or prerequisites maximum effectiveness of the legitimacy ofcurriculum knowledge can be achieved and so on.This thesis mainly adopts the basic research methods of literature survey, comparativeresearch,factor analysis, etc. It consists of six chapters:Chapter One-Introduction. Setting out from the necessity and the importance ofcurriculum knowledge research, the thesis explores the present situation of the contemporaryreform of curriculum knowledge in the primary and secondary schools of the United States,and puts forward the question of insufficiency and necessity of in-depth exploration in thelegitimacy of curriculum knowledge. Based on the systematic review and reflection on therelated researches, it points out the existing deficiencies and establishes the starting point ofthe study.Chapter Two-the elaboration on the related theory of curriculum knowledge and thelegitimacy of curriculum knowledge. It positively clarifies the basic concepts of thecurriculum knowledge, legitimacy and the legitimacy of curriculum knowledge, correctingpeople’s previous mistaken ideas on curriculum knowledge and the legitimacy of curriculumknowledge. It systematically illustrates the characteristics and the generating process of thecurriculum knowledge. On this basis, the thesis constructively makes the basic vision anddimension of curriculum knowledge, including: ideology of curriculum knowledge, thepolitical validity of curriculum knowledge; the social nature validity of curriculum knowledgeand the society’s acceptance level of the legitimacy of curriculum knowledge. This partprovides the core route and the fundamental ideas of the theoretical analysis and research forthe systematical expansion of the whole thesis.Chapter Three–the study and exploration of the legitimacy of curriculum knowledge ofprimary and secondary schools in the United States in the historical dimension. Starting fromanalyzing the main characteristics of subjects of rights and the value orientation in the UnitedStates from the middle of19th century to the early of20th century, this part further analyzesthe process of value empowerment imposed by social political power and ideology on thisknowledge. The social factors influencing the legitimacy of curriculum knowledge of primaryand secondary school in the United States in this period are studied, including: the complexand changeable social and political environment, restriction and influence of the socialproductive forces and production relations as well as the United States ’ traditional culturalvalues, etc. The end of this part sheds light on the existing problems in the legitimacy ofcurriculum knowledge of this period in the United States.Chapter Four-the investigation and analysis of the characteristics and the change trendof the legitimacy of curriculum knowledge of primary and secondary school in thecontemporary United States. With the systematical analysis of the materials and the theories,the paper points out that the features and change trend of the legitimacy of curriculumknowledge of primary and secondary school in the United States are mainly embodied withthe following: the vanishing of a single ideology knowledge; the declining percentage ofrule-type knowledge; the demonstration of morphological diversity curriculum knowledge;the increase of knowledge cultivating rational spirit of the civil; the advancement of scientificknowledge; the multipolarity of power subject and the diversity of values, etc. On this basis, the thesis elaborates on the legitimacy of the conversion process in American primary andmiddle school curriculum knowledge in the type, structure and textbook editing by renderingthe new characteristics and new trend.Chapter Five-the analysis and research on the factors powering and influencing the legalcurriculum knowledge conversion of the primary and secondary schools in the contemporaryUnited States. The thesis points out that the legal curriculum knowledge conversion hasprofound historical reasons, and it is the result of the interaction of politics, economy andculture of American society during a specific period. Choosing the changes of politics,economy and culture as a core thread to explore the evolution process,the thesis clarifies thefactors powering and influencing the legal curriculum knowledge conversion of the primaryand secondary school in the contemporary United States, including: the change of political,economic and cultural environment of the world; the popularity of social public rationalityand technical rationality and the modern transformation of the national education function,etc.Chapter Six-the reflections on the evolution process of legitimacy of curriculumknowledge of the primary and secondary schools in the United States and the enlightenmentsto the curriculum reform of primary and secondary schools in China.Conclusion–the summary of the main research contents and the core point of viewdemonstrated in the thesis as well as the weakness of the thesis and the follow-up objectivesand direction of the study.