Content Analysis of Axiological Dimensions of the National Curricula

Abstract

The article aims to provide a content analysis of the complete corpus of Framework Education Programmes underlying primary and secondary education in the Czech Republic, focusing on the axiological, i.e. the value-driven component of the discourse. Axiology offers insights into a number of disciplines, including education, teaching and pedagogical research. Implicit and / or explicit values are present in fundamental materials such as the national curricula and in other types of documents and processes, exerting influence on educators, students and other stakeholders in educational activities. Methodologically, the text draws on a quantitative-qualitative content analysis of the complete body of Framework Education Programmes (national curricula), using lexical statistics, keyword-in-context analysis, dendrograms, proximity plots, keyness and categorisation. The analysis demonstrates that values constitute a frequent topic in the national curricula, being related to areas such as humanism, environmental protection, democracy, morals, spirituality, tradition, culture and a number of others.