Abstract
Pandemics, like other global challenges, are unquestionably curricular issues. They are curriculum issues not only because of the disrupting consequences of Covid-19 and the economic and social crisis alike but also because people have, through their own activities, contributed to global catastrophes and perpetuated injustices. This article attempts to answer the question: How does Finnish curricular thought, including the role of the teacher and the core curriculum for basic education, respond to the various global crises? While reviewing the current situation, the article also imagines a post–Covid-19 curriculum. Reactivating what is still powerful in Bildung/Didaktik and emphasizing the importance of education’s ethical dimension and the teacher’s role as a curriculum theorist offer the means for dealing with the theme. In addition, understanding the structure of the National Core Curriculum document, the political dimension of the Finnish curriculum’s design process, and the educative possibilities in subjects and multidisciplinary modules, the teacher is capable of creating opportunities for educational experiences that are (ethically) significant for students, proactively and in terms of crises.
Highlights
In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, the heroes are those who keep the structures of society upright and the people alive
Reactivating what is still powerful in Bildung/Didaktik and emphasizing the importance of education’s ethical dimension and the teacher’s role as a curriculum theorist offer the means for dealing with the theme
Understanding the structure of the National Core Curriculum document, the political dimension of the Finnish curriculum’s design process, and the educative possibilities in subjects and multidisciplinary modules, the teacher is capable of creating opportunities for educational experiences that are significant for students, proactively and in terms of crises
Summary
Scholars have employed two basic modes of thought in conceptualizing Western education, including its interrelated notions of teaching and learning: German-Scandinavian Bildung/ Didaktik and Anglo-American Curriculum. Curriculum figuratively became an assembly line producing citizens who were economically and socially useful according to the perceived needs of each period This utilitarian and rational view of education—emphasizing standardization and, later, accountability—still dominates Anglo-American curriculum (Autio 2017; Labaree 2010; Pinar et al 1995; Westbury 1998). In the same intellectual and political fashion, Wolfgang Klafki in Germany, in his criticalconstructive Didaktik, sought to articulate the progressive democratic potential of Bildung by incorporating the Frankfurt School programme into his theory (Klafki 1998) Today, his theory comprises a comprehensive democratic argument—relating to topics from classroom activities to policy measures—in debates with current neoliberal education and curriculum reforms. It requires autonomous teachers who aspire to broader understanding, who are thoughtful, critical, and ethically committed, and who are capable of understanding and interpreting the curriculum, and of exploring it and its potential to be educative
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