Ideal knowing: logics of knowledge in primary school curricula

Abstract

This paper is written to draw attention to the ideal knower and the logic of knowledge embedded in curricula. New logics and new knowers, I argue, are conjured with the hope they will be capable of succeeding in curriculum designers’ imagined future. I frame this discussion in terms of debates about the place of knowledge in the sociology of education. Knowledge and knowers are produced together in curriculum, and it is useful to keep them together in studying classrooms. The bulk of the paper is a detailed comparison of two curricula written for the Australian state of Victoria. I will show that one – the 2000 Curriculum Standards Framework, second edition – follows a logic of truth. The second – the 2007 Victorian Essential Learning Standards – follows a logic of realisation. These contrasting logics require and instantiate quite different types of knower.

Keywords:

• ideal knower
• logic of knowledge
• curriculum
• primary school
• Victoria