A Study On The Power Relationship In Curriculum Field

As an organic part of the whole social system, school education cannot be divorced from its social background. Therefore, the curriculum in schools, which is often misstated as objective and neutral, is inevitably embedded with the struggle of power. Since the 1970s, the neo-Marxists in sociology of education have analyzed the social-power relationship in the curriculum field in two aspects, one of which is called the aspect of reproduction, the other of which is called the aspect of resistance. The scholars with the view of reproduction argued that the power relationship in curriculum field reproduced the unfair social power structure. On the other hand, the scholars with the view of resistance pointed out that the disadvantaged social groups have their own way to show their power in curriculum field.However, the course of curriculum constructing is highly complex. Every individuals construct curriculum from their own positions. Different social groups and stratums try to show their own wills in curriculum construction, too. Thus, curriculum becomes a field of struggle, in which different powers struggle with each other and reach a state of mediation.The struggle and mediation among the powers in curriculum field are not quiescent, on the contrary, they are changeable and have rules to transform. From the curriculum transformation in America and France after the 2nd world war, we can educe two conclusions. Firstly, when the society is comparatively stable and the economy is comparatively prosper, the curriculum power trends to be decentralized, on the contrary, the curriculum power trends to be collected by the government. Secondly, the curriculum power trends to be decentralized in a society with flat stratum structure, and trends to be collective in a society with polarized stratum structure.From these two conclusions we can see that China's curriculum reform faces an important task to decentralize curriculum power, which is also an inquiry of social development. The 8th national curriculum reform has accommodated the current social development. However, there are still some problems to be resolved in the power decentralization in new curriculum, such as the reform of the curriculum evaluation system, the equal distribution of education resource and the implement of the ideals and policies in curriculum reform.