A Critique of the National Curriculum Document (3rd Edition)

This article starts with two preliminary remarks. One has to do with the rate of participation of curriculum specialists in the development process which is deemed to be utterly inadequate. The second preliminary observation deals with the very title chosen for this document. The title، it is argued، is not a mere nominal element but is conducive to misconception of the substance of the document. The author believes that contrary to what current title entails، the document itself is not “a national curriculum”، rather، it is “national curriculum framework” addressing major policies and strategies with respect to school curriculum. The main body of the article، however، is a detailed critical reading of two major curriculum policy embodied in the document. The first، concerns with the issue of decentralization or what the author refers to as emancipation scheme. This issue is considered to be the reason d’être of efforts at devising the national curriculum framework in Iran which conducts its educational operations within a centralized scheme. The statements included in the document are assessed to be qt best confused. The second issue discussed and evaluated in this article is a critical design issue، namely curriculum integration. Observations made to this end، points to the insufficient and superficial encounter of developers with this influential aspect of curriculum with transformative impact on the culture of schools.