A Dialectical Critique of Curriculum Foundations for a Postmodern, Just, and Capital-Conscious Era

Abstract

The discipline of curriculum development has traditionally relied on a series of recognized canons that are quite modern (Philosophical, psychological, and sociological foundations) (The main canons of curriculum development), that were thought by the authors of a modern and industrial frame. In this article, the author suggests that the traditional framework, which is the "thesis" of the curriculum, is a fundamentally inadequate solution to the 21st century challenges. The "antithesis" has become even more powerful through the meeting point of the postmodern turn and its opposition to the dominant narratives' ideas, the technological and social paradoxes of Education 5.0, and a very loud, global claim for social and racial justice particularly made by Generation Z. This dual nature of the concept leads to identifying two system-based problems in the curriculum theory: the Juridical Foundation that does not address injustice issues directly, and the Economic Foundation that misinterprets/ interprets only the financial capital. To this end, the paper introduces a theoretical synthesis that incorporates into curriculum development two new pillars. Firstly, it re-imagines the Juridical Foundation, not just as compliance with the law but certainly human rights, fairness, and social justice become the basic principles which normalize non-negotiable things in the process of their design, and in this case, the process shall also incorporate marginalized people. Secondly, the Multidimensional Capital Foundation, as an enlargement of the perspective, is used to give not only the access to financial issues but almost everything, including temporal, social, emotional, infrastructural, and intellectual capital, all playing their respective roles in maintaining the viability and efficiency of the curriculum. In the end, the paper suggests the integrated model where the new foundations do not exclude the traditional ones but they are added to a much more dynamic foundation. The result of this new synthesis, in its turn, becomes much more comprehensive and ethically sound, and it becomes a model by which we can create a just and sustainable curriculum not only effective but ethically sound in a complicated environment in the 21st century.