On the making and faking of knowledge value in higher education curricula

Abstract

This cover sheet may not be removed from the document.Please scroll down to view the document. 2On the making and faking of knowledge value in higher education curricula AbstractThis paper uses Bernstein's sociology of knowledge and studies of professional knowledge and expertise to identify how knowledge value is constituted in higher education curricula. It is argued that different knowledge structures and forms of disciplinary community influence how curricula are determined, and lead to distinctive types of knowledge value that reflect curriculum purpose. Three models of curriculum construction are presented to distinguish between the constitution of value in the curricula of (i) pure disciplines, (ii) 'stronger' professional disciplines and (iii) 'weaker' occupational disciplines. These illustrate how processes of knowledge selection and transformation, and the dynamics of disciplinary and professional communities, can lead to the strengthening or undermining of knowledge value.

Ideological positioning of Extended Curriculum Programmes – a case study of a large South African research university

“…It also requires a consideration of entry and exit level as well as the flexibility of pathways while maintaining an understanding of the relationship between breadth and depth. Hordern (2016) elaborates on this relationship by identifying important differences between the discourses of different disciplines, identified as horizonal and vertical structures by Bernstein (1999). Vertically structured disciplines, such as the physical sciences tend to advance coherently from a foundational concept while those in the social sciences may display a horizontal structure using various theories to provide differing lenses on the object of study.…”

Recontextualisation and the Education-Work Relation

“…professional bodies) and mechanisms for determining problems and negotiating which forms of disciplinary knowledge to recontextualise to meet occupational needs. Hordern (2016a) discusses the role of the Engineering Council in the United Kingdom in bringing together professional bodies, academia and employers in determining practice problems and maintaining the currency of engineering curricula in higher education via control of Accredited Programme Status and the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-PEC) (EngC 2014). However, while this approach to recontextualisation may maintain a form of stability in periods of time when disciplinary knowledge production and practice dynamics change slowly, it may be increasingly difficult where knowledge production becomes ever more specialised, industrialised, and intertwined with the imperatives of purer disciplines, as has progressively developed in professional disciplines such as medicine, and also in engineering (Foray and Hargreaves 2003;Muller 2015).…”

“…Different recontextualisation dynamics may be experienced in occupations which are less professionalised and possess a more fluid, or contested, underpinning knowledge base. Professional associations in business service and managerial occupations may experience difficulties with engaging a range of employers in the processes of defining problems and agreeing occupational purposes (Morris et al 2006), and in identifying which forms of disciplinary-based specialised knowledge are appropriate for their curricula, if any (Hordern 2016a). Some of these difficulties can be linked back to confusion over the purpose of such occupations.…”