Disciplinary knowledge for what ends? The values dimension of curriculum research in the Anthropocene

Abstract

This article makes the case for repositioning values and ethics as central to understanding how curriculum knowledge can be educationally powerful. Disciplinary knowledge can help individuals make sense of the present, explore alternative futures and participate in society, making ethical choices about how to live. This, however, depends on particular relationships between curriculum, disciplinary knowledge, values and ethical perspectives. We argue that the recent research agenda exploring disciplinary knowledge underplays the values dimension in how curriculum knowledge is constructed and used. First, we give an overview of the recent thrust of curriculum debates in subject education communities, placing this in some historical context. Here, we recognise the need to make a robust case for school subjects and their important relationship with disciplines. We go on to examine some arguments around the role of knowledge in curriculum. Taking the concept of the Anthropocene (the human epoch of the planet) and from our perspectives as geography and religious education educators, we propose a focus on ethical disposition and interdisciplinarity to make the values dimensions of curriculum knowledge more visible.