Foundations of Curriculum

Foundations are the forces that influence the minds of curriculum developers.
In this way they affect the content and structure of the curriculum.
The curriculum reflects the society and culture of a country and this is the desire of a society
that their children should learn the habits, ideas, attitudes and skills of the adult society and
culture and educational institutional are the proper way to impart these skill.
This is duty of teacher and school to discipline the young of the society and provide them the
set of experiences in the form of curriculum. The needs, knowledge and information of the
society provide foundation in the formation of curriculum.

There are four major foundations of curriculum.

1. Philosophical foundation of curriculum.

2. Psychological foundation of curriculum.
3. Social foundation of curriculum.
4. Historical foundation of curriculum.

Psycological
foundation

Foundation
philisophical Social
foundation of Foundation
Curriculum

Historical
foundation

Philosophical foundation of curriculum:-

Philosophical foundation based upon fundamental beliefs that arise from one's philosophy of
Education, curricular decisions involve consideration of several topics and issues. Precisely for
this reason, we consider philosophy one of the major foundation areas in curriculum.

There are four educational philosophies relate to curriculum.

 1. Perennialism
2. Progressivism
3. Essentialism
4. Reconstructionism

Perennialism:-
The focus in the curriculum is classical subjects, literary analysis and considers curriculum as
constant.

Progressivism:-
The curriculum is focused on students’ interest, human problems and affairs. The subjects are
interdisciplinary, integrative and interactive.

Essentialism:-
The essential skill and essential subject of English, science, History, Math and foreign language
is the focus of the curriculum.

Reconstructionism:-
The focus of the curriculum is on present and future trends and issues of national and
international interests.