Uppeldi og menntun - 01.07.2012, Síða 89

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 21(2) 2012 89
atli HarðarSon
aims are abstractions that get whatever meaning they have from contexts that include
subject matter and teaching methods and are therefore unable to determine what to
do in schools. This argument makes it doubtful that school curricula can possibly be
aims-based in the sense assumed by the tradition outlined above. Stenhouse did not
argue for the impossibility of aims-based curricula. His main point was rather that de-
tailed specification of aims is undesirable, both because education should increase the
freedom of students rather than mould them, and because truly successful education
makes students’ behaviour unpredictable. The arguments produced by Schwab make
it questionable how realistic the requirements made by the new National Curriculum
Guide are, and Stenhouse’s arguments provide reasons to doubt their desirability.
Earlier curriculum guides for secondary schools issued by the Icelandic Ministry
of Education in 1986 and 1999 had required schools to use aims as principles of cur-
riculum organisation. These publications from the last decades of the 20th century
did, however, not specify in detail what types of aims were acceptable. With the pub-
lication of the 2011 National Curriculum Guide for secondary schools, educational
authorities in Iceland attempt to systematise the presentation of educational aims in
secondary school curricula to a greater extent than before, by requesting schools to use
precise formulation of learner-centred aims as organising principles for all modules.
This can be read as a continuation of the attacks advocates of technocratic rationalism
in the 20th century have been making on traditions based on ideals of humanism and
liberal learning.
Keywords: National curriculum guide, educational aims, history of curriculum theory,
rationalism, technocracy
About thE Author
Atli Hardarson (atli@fva.is) graduated with an MA in philosophy from Brown Uni-
versity in 1984. He is principal of Fjölbrautaskóli Vesturlands, the comprehensive
secondary school in Akranes, Iceland. Atli is a PhD student in the School of Education
at the University of Iceland. His dissertation is about philosophical problems related
to educational aims.