Curriculum evaluation in relation to the surrounding society. Quasi-experimental field study of a school experiment on ruralizing basic education in Dahomey (West Africa) with a detailed introduction to the methods of criterion-oriented evaluation
Kordes, H.
SSIP Schriften 27: 613
1976
Document Number: 307455
The study uses a systems approach to analyse and identify problems in the Dahomey experiment in ruralizing the primary school curriculum. The Dahomey (Benin) rural school reform was one of the first in Africa and a model for other developing countries. The four main sections of the study are: (1) Analysis of the research strategy for evaluating the Dahomey (Benin) school reform; (2) The norm structure: problem of pre-educational norms, interests and obligations as they affect planning ruralized basic education; (3) the organization of objectives: problems of legitimate and activated educational aims and roles of ruralized basic education; (4) adaptation: problems of carrying over norms and aims into the surrounding society of pupils, teachers and parents; and (5) Interpretation: problems of material and ideological contradictions between educational qualifications and socialization belonging to the rural society. The evaluation ends by emphasizing the need to embed basic education in a general scheme of political-economic rural animation which does not deprive the state of its right and duty to impose norms but through the animation organization of the majority of the peasantry takes account of their educational aims and job aspirations and those of their children.