Critique Of The Impact Of Positivism On Modern Schooling Curriculum Processes In The Context Of Value Education

Abstract

This article examines the culture of positivism, its features, and its impact on the school curriculum. It examines the impact of positivism on the whole schooling process, with special reference to ethical and moral education. Furthermore, the author's presents a critique of the culture of positivism and its rigid adherence to fact-value distinction based on rationality and objectivity that proved to be status-quoist. The objective of this article is to demonstrate how positivism supports a form of domination undermining critical consciousness by ignoring the values-moral dimension of education. Specifically, the author claims in the article that the curriculum can never be value neutral and that, fundamentally, education is a moral quest. The article concludes by drawing from some recent critical work on the fallacious notion of ethical neutrality and arguments against positivistic values. Finally, it concludes that by abandoning the culture of positivism, curricula and textbooks must be re-examined and redesigned so that addressing values and ethical challenges explicitly in classrooms becomes the primary purpose of education.