Abstract—Curriculum is a rather ambiguous term because of
its nature. This ambiguousness has become even more severe due
to reflections of paradigms of Information Age and its dominant
phenomenon Information and Communication Technologies
(ICT) on education.
The purpose of this study is to determine what meanings
teachers attribute to curriculum, and then to assess these
meanings within the literature. The study was carried out on 35
teachers in Elazig city center, Turkey. The study is a qualitative
research, and the data were collected via open-ended interview
forms. These data were then analyzed with content analysis and
descrriptive statistical techniques. At the end of the study, it was
revealed that the meanings the teachers attributed to curriculum
are rather traditional, various and far from being integrity.
From this, in can be said that curriculum in teachers' mind is
shadowy. From a traditional perspective, this case may give
birth to some problems during education process. However, this
shadowy perception of teachers can turn into an advantage
during the process in Information Age. Because, the teachers
cannot be expected to be loyal to curriculum which they cannot
make sense of. So, they can take some socio-psychological factors
into consideration which curriculum do not foresee. Such an
environment, in which effect of curriculum lessens for per
students, is more humane, and it helps them to stay as
themselves allowing them to form their own knowledge.
Index Terms—Meaning crisis of curriculum, curriculum,
meaning of curriculum, information age program.
Burhan Akpinar is with the Firat University, Dept. of Education, Elazig,
Turkey (e-mail: bakpinar23@gmail.com).
Veli Batdı is with the Kilis Yedi Aralık University, Dept. of Education,
Kilis, Turkey (e-mail: veb_27@hotmail.com).
Ender Özeren is with the Dicle University, Çermik Vocational High
School, Diyarbakir, Turkey (e-mail: enderozeren@gmail.com).
Gamze Kirilmazkaya is with the Harran University, Dept. of Education,
Şanliurfa, Turkey (e-mail: gamzekirilmazkaya@gmail.com).
Cite: Burhan Akpinar, Veli Batdı, Ender Özeren, and Gamze Kirilmazkaya, "The Meaning Crisis of Curriculum in Information Age," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 7, no. 9, pp. 661-664, 2017.