Social Forces and Issues Shaping Curriculum Planning
The major demographic information in the United States comprises geographic locations,
ethnicity, multi-religion, and social constructs of the community. The vintage of the school has
about 680 students who are considered as part of the residential program. The management of the
school has plans to recruit minority and underrepresented populations in the first and second tier of
North Carolina. The demographic data of the school involves 50.4% of the residential students,
where 49% are male. The population of White, Asian, Multiracial, Black, Hispanic, Native
American, and Pacific Islander are 46.4%, 27.8%, 10.6%, 8.7%, 1.0%, 0.4%, and 0.1%
respectively (Garo, Allen-Handy & Lewis, 2018). The institution provides broad programs that
involve about 400 students. These students are engaged in the online program, which is called
NCSSM. They offer interactive video conferencing courses which enables students from all over
the states to interact with their instructor.
Compared to the demographics of North Carolina States, the school demographic has a
small population. The current population of individuals residing in North Carolina is 9,380,884.
The ethnicity information in North Carolina shows a higher number of whites, 75.27%, compared
to the local district population of 46.4%. The number of Black people, 22.2% residing in North
Carolina, is slightly higher than the school district population of 8.7%. The North Carolina State
was initially considered as a rural state where the majority of people were living in small towns
and farms (Jho, Hong, & Song, 2016). The demographic information of the school districts shows
some enhancement of customs and general esteem with the integration of different ethnic groups.
Local Demographics
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The current population of the local state area is approximately 885,708. The local state is
made up of the communities integrated through culture, economic, and transportation aspects. The
local government is considered a fattest growing town in the United States. The critical
demographic information involves population density, which is about 2,457 per square mile. The
current racial composition of the residents in the local state involves 45.1% Caucasian, 35%
African American, 13.1% Latin America, 5% Asian, 0.5% American Indian. The majority of
residents are protestant. Previous election results in the local state involve the vote in the
battleground for current president Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The lieutenant governor seat is
also up for vote following key state congressional positions. The major educational issue in the
local state involves the need for adequate direct resources to leaders, teachers, and public schools
—the need for transformation in making North Carolina a teaching designation again (Kushnir et
al., 2017). The recent election polls by SurveyMonkey shows that Joe Biden had 52% support from
North Carolina and Donald Trump had 47% support from the region. The impact of elections polls
on education resources call for race elevation in the public education system. This should fix the
need for professional transformation in the struggling schools.
Top five Curriculum Planning Social Forces
The top five social forces in the school curriculum involve social constructs developed
according to social practice. The social constructs should be incorporated in the planning of the
school program. There is a need to establish good patterns of integrating cultures with everchanging social customs in the community system of North Carolina. This means that the school
system should adopt the way of life of different ethnic groups to create diversity in learning. The
second social force involves the key theories of human development. The curriculum planning
needs to consider human development in the learning to ensure all age groups are considered in the
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education system. The major issue affecting many institutions is the age-related differences among
students (Jho, Hong, & Song, 2016). There is a need for the education planner to consider senior
groups in separate programs than young ones. Individual differences are also a major factor
affecting the school curriculum in the United States. There is a need to create effective programs
that would reduce individuals’ differences among learners.
The third social forces involve the nature of the learning process. The major guiding
principle to the curriculum planners is providing different theories that describe various learning
styles. This provides learners with an opportunity to consider the appropriate approach to learning.
With these theories, learners can understand differences among learners. The fourth key social
forces involve the nature of knowledge offered in the curriculum. The curriculum planners always
find it difficult to determine what to include in the curriculum with the changing patterns of the
education system. There is a need for a curriculum planner to organize knowledge based on learner
understanding level and include questions that need to be considered (Garo, Allen-Handy & Lewis,
2018). The fifth aspect of learning is the behavioral change patterns among students. The
development of the learning curriculum should be based on behavioral theory patterns in the
learning process. This will help students to keep track of different theories of learning.
Importance of Five Social Forces
The state of knowledge in school is addressed through consideration of social forces in
curriculum planning. These five social forces are the guiding principles in the flow of structural
information. They provide a real opportunity for the student to engage and learn about the social
constructs of society. This understanding is important in the diversification of the education
system. Five forces of curriculum planning generate the expectation of the government in the
school framework system. The government can allocate education resources based on ideas and
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aspects of the curriculum plan. Society can maintain a responsive system of resource management
with a clear framework of learning (Villares & Dimmitt, 2017). The development of the school
curriculum with consideration of five forces helps address the issue of differential treatment among
ethnic groups. Many students are always motivated to achieve group and social relationships to
reduce cultural differences in learning. Also, parent involvement in school through behavioral
learning theory.
The nature of knowledge offered in the school curriculum is yet another consideration. This
means that the education planner should have effective ways of influencing learners to acquire
knowledge. Individual and group actions are two major social contexts in the learning process.
There is a need to consider constructivism in the individual perspective and theories of cognitive
development in the social context of learning. With this social force, it will be easier for students to
have social, cultural theories in the learning process (Kushnir et al., 2017). The actual context of
knowledge and negotiation is addressed like social learning. Students can have a broad
understanding of knowledge through different domains of class rules. In other words, they can talk
about the subject of learning according to the sociocultural perspective in the individual academic
performance. As such, these five social forces are important in the successful planning of the
curriculum.
Curriculum Planning will Address Social Forces
The major social forces associated with the education system can be addressed through
curriculum planning. Different approaches can be used by curriculum planners to address social
aspects in the learning process. First, the major consideration of the curriculum framework
planning is equality among different groups in the provision of education. In many schools,
cultural mismatch is a major problem affecting the performance of students (Jho, Hong, & Song,
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2016). The minority children in the school will always have differential treatment because they are
not socialized in the context of academic achievement. Curriculum planning will sustain and
promote the ability of minority groups in social constructs. This will enable the minority groups of
students to improve their performance through acculturation and socialization patterns. The
learning contextual framework is generated through operationalizing terms of students’
experiences.
The curriculum plan will have a significant role in the achievement motivation even with
the top five social forces. The implication of cultural differences will affect the achievement
motivation that a student holds in the understanding of cross-national studies (Garo, Allen-Handy
& Lewis, 2018). The planning system initiates some important strategies of socialization according
to different theories of the education system. It is a good approach to initiating academic
orientation among different groups of learners. The aspect of motivation in the school curriculum
helps the student to understand education goals, but it does not explain differences among various
mainstream groups. Therefore, curriculum planning plays an important role in an intergroup
relationship.
Key Issue in Five Social Forces
The key issue in the social construct forces in the education system is negotiation or how to
talk among learners. The ability of students to engage in class discussions and discuss a certain
topic is associated with a sociocultural perspective. The issue of negation helps the student to
understand the question raised by the teacher. The level of engagement and communication aspects
helps students to interpret and to understand the question rather than having literal meaning.
Negotiation tends to influence the nature of learning about the subject based on text requests
(Kushnir et al., 2017). The second social force on the nature of knowledge is associated with text
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comprehension and class participation. Students need to comprehend a text and develop techniques
of understanding. Students can gain competence in the concepts and actions concerning learning
discipline. The course of dialogue in the learning process generates some important ideas of
merging concepts and knowledge. Knowledge is connected by principles and concepts networks of
action proof, discussion, and explanation.
Differential treatment is the major issue arising in the human development of social force.
The cultural mismatch in class generates some important treatments in the context of school
learning subjects at large. For example, many states school tends to develop an upper class for
English-speaking students, which are not accessible to the low-income ethnicity minority. In most
cases, the low-income English proficiency group has a limited level of English proficiency (Jho,
Hong, & Song, 2016). Therefore, there is a major problem in the academic experiences of students
due to cultural discrimination. The nature of learning social force is associated with the issue of
cultural differences. Ethnic groups among different institutions of the United States are not
considered equal in distributing education resources. Learning opportunities among different
cultures influence the ability of a student’s academic performance. The behavioral theory tends to
bring the issue of social identity in the learning process. Many learning institutions in the United
States have outgroups and ingroups associated with discrimination, prejudice, and stereotypes.
Recommendation on Key Issues
The curriculum planner and educators should develop a strategy for improving intergroup
relations. This can be done by researching social psychological theory to ensure there is minimal
paradigm learning. This can help in addressing the issue of differential treatment among various
ethnic groups. By minimizing the paradigm in the learning process can help in reducing favoritism,
especially in ingroups. It is important to create a curriculum that would reduce physical
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differences, competition, conflict, discrimination, and animosity in the learning institutions. The
issue of separating students based on the language they speak should be solved by increasing
intergroup relationships (Garo, Allen-Handy & Lewis, 2018). This approach will ensure that
human development is considered in positive intergroup contacts. This will also increase positive
intergroup relationships in racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse classrooms. Cooperative
learning is yet another technique of reducing racial attitudes among students. It provides a good
avenue for academic achievement and social interactions among different ethnic groups.
Expected Benefits
Curriculum planning in the education system will come with different benefits. First, the
learning institutions will achieve their education goals, the standard of learning, and expected
patterns of education within the curriculum structure. The second benefit involves increase
collaboration among students from diverse ethnic backgrounds. This will help in academic
achievement motivation since all students and teachers can use learning resources equitably
(Kushnir et al., 2017). Thirdly, the planning on the school curriculum will also help in reflection to
foster proficiency and growth among students. Equally important, the learning curriculum supports
the teaching process through enabled self-reflection, stimulated creativity, and tangible resources.
The major benefit of curriculum planning, according to the social forces, is to improve student
outcomes in the academic assessment.
References
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Garo, L., Allen-Handy, A., & Lewis, C. W. (2018). Race, poverty, and violence exposure: A
critical spatial analysis of African American trauma vulnerability and educational outcomes
in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Journal of Negro Education, 87(3), 246-269.
Jho, H., Hong, O., & Song, J. (2016). An analysis of STEM/STEAM teacher education in Korea
with a case study of two schools from a community of practice perspective. Eurasia
Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 12(7), 1843-1862.
Kushnir, N., Osipova, N., Valko, N., & Kuzmich, L. (2017). Review of trends, approaches and
perspective practices of STEM-education for training center opening. Інформаційні
технології в освіті, (2), 69-80.
Villares, E., & Dimmitt, C. (2017). Updating the school counseling research agenda: A Delphi
study. Counselor Education and Supervision, 56(3), 177-192.
Using your answers to the discussion questions throughout this course and the information you researched from the Week 4 assignment Social Forces and Issues Shaping Curriculum Planning, you will create a proposal to update the curriculum you used. Remember to relate your answers to the student population, neighborhood demographics, alignment to state and national standards, and other issues that affect the curriculum.
Identify the immediate issues with the curriculum.
Address the following:
Test scores.
Age of the current curriculum.
Need to implement technology.
Social forces.
Revision of state or national standards.
Discuss who will be on your curriculum team.
How will you ensure that you have a diverse team?
Explain the role of key positions and who you expect to fill those positions.
Describe how you will conduct a needs assessment. Use a variety of resources and methods, not just test results.
Explore at least three current trends that include technology integration in the classroom and current methodology in your grade or subject area.
These issues can be ideas such as:
Flipped classroom.
Online instruction.
Differentiated learning.
The latest teaching methods.
Expanded use of technology for students such as iPads for everyone.
Discuss practical considerations with these issues such as cost, teacher training, logistics, et cetera.
This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:
Create a proposal for curriculum planning that addresses the immediate issues.