Discussions on Identity of Local Curriculum

Abstract

Objectives The paper aims to discuss the possibility of ‘Local Curriculum,’ which is developed and officialized by local education offices, to exist with an identity as a curriculum.
 Methods For this, the curriculum cases of California State, USA and Berlin, Germany were reviewed, and three implications were drawn for the Korea’s local curriculum reform in future: Unifiying the national and local curriculum; aligning the national, local, and school curriculum identically by definition; the possibility of co-existence of national, local, and school curriculum as a curriculum in classrooms.
 Results Three results are suggested as follows. First, local curriculum should be renamed as municipal-provincial curriculum. Second, the focus of local curriculum should move from general curriculum to subject curriculum. Third, local curriculum should find its own role to support classroom based curriculum development along with the national and school curriculum.
 Conclusions It is concluded that the stablization of local curriculum developed and enacted in local places(i.e. local education offices, schools, and classrooms, etc.) is one of the keys to open up Korea’s educational future.