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as in other spheres...the circle of dominant ideas does accumulate the symbolic
power to map or classify the world for others...It becomes the horizon of the takenfor-granted:
what the world is and how it works, for all practical purposes. (1988, p.
44)
Furthermore, rather than culture and ideology as a naturally occurring or evolving form or
process, Apple asserts the explicit operation of ideologies writing, “the conventional
approach…assumes by and large that ideology is ‘inscribed in’ people...” (2000, p. 15). For
the context of this dissertation, the term official knowledge refers to that which is legitimately
included in school curriculum. It also encompasses what and whose knowledge is determined
to be of most worth for students to learn (Apple, 2004). Curriculum, especially as represented
through the syllabus and textbooks, then is the translation of official knowledge intended to
be “…what counts as valid knowledge…” (Bernstein, 1974, p. 203). There are various
factors, such as economic and political, which determine what is included as official
knowledge. For example, those who have access to the political systems are in a better placed
situation to greatly influence the content of what is included in official knowledge. Karier,
Violas and Spring also identify the influence and power that business values have historically
had in schools, by writing that through economics, “…schools…have been used as
instruments to teach the norms necessary to adjust the young to the changing patterns of the
economic system as well as to the society’s more permanent values” (Karier, Violas &
Spring, 1973, p. 7). Thus, they can see that dominant societal values, whether economic or
otherwise, impact directly on the content of curriculum. An example is the public uproar that
resulted from the term ‘invasion’ used to describe the act of British colonisation of the
Australian continent in Queensland school curriculum documents in 1994. See Appendix A:
Contexts for an overview and A. Clark (2006, 2002b) and Ferrari and Wilson (2007) for
deeper analyses of this issue.
The construction and implementation of the curriculum is impacted by a number of factors,
with influence emerging from the accepted cultural values of the given era. Jerome Bruner
describes school curriculum as reflecting “...inarticulate cultural values as well as explicit
plans; and these values are never far removed from considerations of social class, gender, and
the prerogatives of social power” (1996, p. 27). This notion of social power influencing the
curriculum is supported by others (such as Apple, 2000; Karier et al., 1973; Hall, 1988) who
see the relationship between schooling and broader society closely linked. The cultural values
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