ICI HuaXia Curriculum Forum║Conversation between Professor Deng Zongyi and Professor Cui Yunhuo on the Crisis and Way-out of Contemporary Curriculum Theory Development

On the afternoon of November 16, Professor Deng Zongyi, the professor at the School of Education, University College London and executive editor of the Journal of Curriculum Studies, once again guested at Huaxia Curriculum Forum of ICI. He had an academic conversation with Professor Cui Yunhuo, the ICI director, on "Crisis and Solution for Theoretical Development of Contemporary Curriculum". The forum was hosted by ICI Professor Wu Gangping. An Guiqing, Chen Shuangye, Shi Yuchen, Yang Xiaozhe, Zhou Wenye and other teachers from the ICI attended the forum. More than 60 teachers and students from the Department of Education participated in the discussion and exchange.

Communication between Professor Deng Zongyi and Professor Cui Yunhuo

Professor Wu Gangping host the event

Professor Deng Zongyi first reviewed the reconceptualization movement of curriculum theory, and deeply discussed the current status and development trends of curriculum theory research in the United States. Through an in-depth analysis of present situation, Professor Deng guided the audience to think deeply about the crisis of the current curriculum. He further introduced the trends of postmodernism and critical theory closely related to the development of curriculum theory research, deepening the audience's understanding of the crisis in curriculum research from different perspectives.

Subsequently, Professor Deng listed in detail the crisis of curriculum theory and its external symptoms. He pointed out that “the reconceptualization movement and the subsequent postmodern and critical turns transformed curriculum into an all-encompassing postmodern cultural study that encompasses almost all issues related to politics, culture, society, environment, technology, and human existence, causing curriculum theorists to ignore the importance of curriculum practice and specific school operations. Attention on curriculum practice and curriculum issues have gradually lost in contemporary curriculum research." This highlights the crisis of American curriculum theory.

Then, Professor Deng deeply discussed Michael Young's "social realism of knowledge" and put forward a powerful criticism that "this theory only focuses on curriculum content and ignores issues of curriculum practice." Finally, Professor Deng Zongyi proposed a method to solve the curriculum research crisis: reconnect curriculum research with the school's work and practice, use empirical research as the basis, and use theoretical research as the guidance to deeply understand the complex development of the school as a social institution and take a critical look at critical theory and postmodernism as the theoretical basis for curriculum studies.

During the interactive communication session, Professor Cui Yunhuo pointed out that knowledge,although important, is only a part of, not all of the course content; same as course content. This theory also ignores the ontology of the curriculum, that is, the problem of student learning. Without the presence of teachers and students, this theory cannot solve the real problems of practice.

Then, Professor Cui Yunhuo made an in-depth summary of the history and future of curriculum theory research. He comprehensively reviewed the development process of curriculum theory using the curriculum thoughts of scholars such as Bobbitt, Taylor, Dewey, Bruner, Schwab and Pinar as the starting point. Paying special attention to the construction of Chinese curriculum theory, Professor Cui emphasized that "curriculum theory should focus on the key issues at present, that is, the essential issue of education: what kind of people to train, how to train people, and for whom to train people. The core of curriculum teaching lies in answering the question of how to effectively train people.

Finally, the teachers and students on site had a series of interactive exchanges with Professor Deng and Professor Cui on issues related to the development of curriculum theory.