[[alternative]]A Study on Curriculum and Power Exercise:Taking the Revision of the Senior High School History Curriculum Guidelines as an Example

[[abstract]]A Study on Curriculum and Power Exercise: Taking the Revision of the Senior High School History Curriculum Guidelines as an Example Abstract The purposes of this study are to examine the relationship between power exercises and curriculum knowledge selection, and to examine the hidden driving forces, the approaches, and the outcome of the curriculum knowledge selection. Apply the critical pedagogy prospective, the relevant power exercises underlying the revision of the senior high school history curriculum guidelines are evaluated in this study. To achieve the research goals, the following research methods are applied in this study: (1) Theoretical exploration-Exploring the relationship between curriculum knowledge selection and power exercises in order to understand the relationship between curriculum, knowledge, and power. (2) Document analysis-Focusing primarily on the documents relating to the revision of the senior high school history curriculum—such as policy statements, meeting minutes, official documents, scholarly reports, newspaper articles, editorials, etc. (3) Interviews-Being conducted to understand the thoughts of the members of the history curriculum revision committee, as well as experts and high school history teachers. (4) Observation-Being conducted to collect data on-site at public hearings in order to supplement the document analysis. The research findings of this study include that the knowledge selection process in the curriculum is indeed influenced by the exercises of power, and the power exercises involve the struggle of ideology and values. The knowledge transmitted in school involves value conflict and power struggle, and it is the results of the inter-competition and inter-compromise among different interest groups. The debates in the society about the revision are focused on the political ideology embedded in the history curriculum guidelines. The two main power exercises are from the political tenet and professional tenet. The political aspect of power exercise reflects the struggle for the leadership of political ideology and interpretation of culture in order to gain the recognition and support from the public. The way the “political power” exercised is through external forces such as politician, media, the public, and the interest groups as well as the administrative power from the Ministry that influenced the committee internally. Professional aspect of power exercise comes from the experts who own professional historical knowledge, from academic community, and from senior high school history teachers. They tried to advocate different ideas and views of guidelines to influence the revision committee. It is found that, the influence of “political power” override that of “professional power”. Finally, the suggestions are provided as follow: 1. The process of curriculum policy-making should be reviewed and reconstructed. 2. The high school history education should be developed toward cultivating students’ independent historical thinking. 3. The reform of the historical education should be heading toward more professionalized.