A Systematic Literature Review on Curriculum Studies Addressing Social Inequalities

Abstract

This research aims to reveal trends on social inequality in curriculum studies based on the studies carried out between 2014-2019 in the international literature. For this purpose, a systematic literature review was carried out. Some criteria have been specified for the systematic literature review to determine the journals and articles to be analyzed within the research purpose and questions. In line with the determined criteria, the Scopus database was searched, and 262 curriculum studies reached as a result of the scanning were examined within the scope of addressing social inequalities. A detailed analysis was carried out on 63 studies included in terms of the target audience, the design, which inequality and curriculum dimension the studies focused on, and their purposes. The remaining data were coded on the text document through descriptive and interpretive codes. As a result of the research, it was found that social inequalities started to be handled from different perspectives and multidimensionally. Also, studies were carried out to reflect the current events, and the curriculum dimension mainly focused on the learning-teaching process and content. However, the number of applied studies was higher than theoretical ones. Moreover, the studies were carried out to demonstrate that the inequalities were legitimized and reproduced. These studies were carried out with students, teachers and documents as a data source by using the case study design in general.