Restricting Meaning or Expanding Consciousness: A Premodern View on Postmodern Curricula.

This paper argues that in a postmodern perspective, any curriculum is an expression of epistemology. It is a way of knowing, and a culturally oriented language. As such, curriculum is a manifestation of human consciousness, and it should comprehend in its scope the varieties of languages expressing races, genders, and social classes. Within a postmodern perspective, the curriculum becomes a means toward awakening consciousness, reaching the personal within the social, and respecting the humble in the fight against hegemonies. As empowerment lies upon sociocritical as well as personal insights, raising consciousness becomes the goal of postmodern education. The paper describes how, despite postmodern education's generous integrated goals, it may lead to new perversions because of mass networking and links to finance. The attempts to generalize politics of meaning through education may well submit the ideals of meaningfulness to the language of adminis"traitors" at a time when education is deeply rooted in economics and trade values. The paper focuses on the emergence of consciousness studies in the academic world. (LMI)