Curriculum making on the edge of Europe in the age of globalization: two alternative scenarios

Abstract

My purpose in this article is to discuss – in the light of the current debates on globalization – some possible implications of the peripheral position of the region where I live – The Azores, Portugal – for curriculum construction. Considering that curriculum construction in Portugal has been traditionally very centralized but the regional government of the Azores has recently started to design a regional curriculum, I shall discuss two alternative scenarios for its construction. One of the scenarios is based on a categorical approach to difference – a kind of approach that has prevailed among many curricular initiatives whose guiding principles emerge, to some extent, from a commitment to the advocacy of certain minorities. The other scenario is based on a non-categorical approach to difference, inspired by the “grammar of difference” proposed by Nicholas Burbules. I will argue that the latter kind of approach is, in principle, more respectful of every kind of difference operating in school and, therefore, more likely to accommodate differences that result from the specific characteristics of the Azores without treating them in ways that might isolate the regional curriculum, that is, jeopardize its openness to cosmopolitan views of knowledge.