Curriculum as a Discourse: Using Critical Discourse Analysis to Revive Curriculum Reconceptualists' Thought

Abstract

Curriculum reconceptualists seek to reshape the field of curriculum studies. Unlike traditional curricularists, theyreprobate the technical approach of curriculum development because of its pure functional and managerial tendency.Reconceptualists look at curriculum from various philosophy-saturated perspectives. One of their claims isconsidering curriculum as a discourse, and the main task curricularists have to cope with is to understand thisdiscourse.Unfortunately, reconceptualists penetrate deeply into philosophy without offering a clear practical vision that helpsthem transform their insights. In this paper, I argue that reconceptualists can bridge the gap through consideringCritical Discourse Analysis (CDA) assumptions. The idea of understanding curriculum as a discourse could betheoretically and practically detected when employing (CDA).