The Pragmatic Curriculum: Teacher Reskilling as Cultural Politics

Abstract

It is said that teachers can, and do, use curricula different from the
standardized versions presented to them. The author argues that teachers are more than deskilled technicians and, using excerpts from three case studies, demonstrates that teachers apply cultural politics to create pragmatic curricula and to reskill themselves. The application of cultural politics alleviates oppressive, alienating, and subordinating relations in schools. It is suggested that, to transform themselves from deskilled technicians to reskilled practitioners, teachers question seriously the socio-political climate in which curricula function.