SOCIAL DIMENSIONS IN

CURRICULUM
DEVELOPMENT
EDUCATION FOR SOCIETY
and INDIVIDUAL

Prepared by:
Ma. Cecilia p. blanco, rn
 INTRODUCTION

There are Christian Missionaries who took

over the schooling in Wachagga village and
taught with great zeal the basic skills of
reading, writing, arithmetic, and reverence
for the Lord. The missionaries did a fine job,
sanctified by their own zeal, and when they
left, all the young Wachaggans in the village
had mastered the basics and could read,
write, do arithmetic, and revere.
By “all the young Wachaggans,” we
mean the sole two youngsters who
accidentally survived the lions, sharks,
drought heat, European clothing, etc.
This experience gave rise to the old
Tanzanian proverb, “Caveat
discipulus,” which translates roughly
“ Be ware of pedagogues peddling basic
skills.”
The Wachaggans in their savage innocence,
recognized too late a truth about education
which is overlooked by equally
overwhelming number of curriculum
developers in their civilized ignorance: That
the kind of education, and therefore, of
curriculum, in any society is determined by
the actual nature of that society itself and
not by misperceptions or well-intentioned
wishes about the nature of that society or
culture.
 Like the Wacchagans, we are in danger
of developing irrelevant curriculum
unless we examine the nature of our
culture and society as they exist and
the nature of the forces which set its
tone and emphases before we decide
upon the education needed.
 Education must start and end in
native grounds.
 Not everything foreign must be
eschewed.
 Such adaptation of foreign sources
could only play a supplementary and
subsidiary role.
 And if they should be adapted it should fit
the national needs and aspirations of the
borrower country.
 EDUCATION, FOR SOCIETY
OR FOR INDIVIDUAL
 One of the main functions of education is
to prepare the individual to become useful
member of the society.
 Socialization as an active educative
process, the learner socializes with others
and takes the roles expected of him in
view of his social position.
 Learning or education is defined as the
way in which an individual acquires
socially standardized behaviors.
  Behaviors that include also the
modes of thought and concepts which
direct perception and understanding.
 Behaviors may be both individual and culturally
shaped, has sufficient irregularities,
understanding, and scientific investigation.
 Learning process is primarily social.
 The innate tendencies of a learner are modified,
suppressed, or encouraged according to social
demands around him.
 The individual internalizes the demands of his
surrounding culture.
 Throughout life there are circumstances in
which the individual can not have his own
way.
 The needs of society must receive
consideration.
 The purposes and desires of the people in
the society where he belongs are in the
forefront.
 The individual must weigh his own needs,
consider the others’ demands and then
implement behavior that maintains harmony.
 Basic to this harmonization is the capability
of the individual to know himself, to have
integrated his experience and to be able to
affirm his own values and goals.
 The individual sizes up the dimensions of
society.
 He still has control over his own person and
decision.
 In curriculum development, the social
phenomena must be taken into
consideration, without forgetting that the
individual must maintain his identity and
individuality.
 The curriculum must assist the individual to
understand the process of harmonization
and to develop a repertoire of behaviors that
will serve in broad range of situations such
as compassion, understanding, sensitivity,
awareness, affection, acceptance, initiative
and inquiry.
 The curriculum must foment a reasonable
conformity to social norms and standards
without going against individual expression.
 There must be choice up to a point.