“Transformation” is the “IN” word for changes to school curriculums in a good number of Western nations in this, the 21st Century.
Some changes are occurring simply to stay in tune with changing technology — and to capitalize on its ability to assist learning and teaching.
Some changes are being prescribed for purposes of globalization — employment, trade, peace, understanding of different cultures, etc.
Other changes such as come under names as Common Core or Personalized Learning or 21st Century Skills are presumed shifts being imposed to change mindsets in preparation for more central control, either by nations themselves and/or United Nations style of world governance.
Yet other changes are originating directly from teacher training facilities for left-wing ideological and political purposes.
It is the latter change that is now gaining some concentrated appraisal as being out of step with what a democracy purports to be about, that is, informed citizens consenting to their governance structures. That is, NOT having one political philosophy implanted into a population through compulsory monopoly government schools.
Here are just three recent signals that teacher training will be under greater examination in the future:
1 Denver, Colorado, school system is training new teachers in new ways for their expanding demands, ways that will speed up the process and avoid politicized teachers: “Universities and colleges design their teacher training programs to stress radical left-wing social and political ideals, just like the unions. The colleges are also generally pro-union and work to instill that idea in students.”
2 Australia has just announced —Education Panel to Review “Faddish” Teach Training. Feb 20, 2014
“‘And there is evidence that our teacher education system is not up to scratch. We are not attracting the top students into teacher courses as we once did, courses are too theoretical, ideological and faddish, not based on the evidence of what works in teaching important subjects like literacy.’‘
http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/2100816/education-panel-to-review-faddish-teacher-training/?cs=24
3 The Lexington Institute, Lexington, Virginia has produced a study: Radicalization of Teacher Education Programs in the United States, 2012.
“ . . .do parents who entrust their children to the government-controlled schools have a clue about the radical agendas that many ed-schools are pushing upon teacher candidates? . . . so it is that schools gradually concentrate less on their traditional mission of teaching useful academic skills and factual knowledge, and more on leftist indoctrination of the nation’s youth and radical transformation of schools and society.” (4,5)
The Lexington Report is direct, gives names, texts, and considerable evidence of the pervasiveness of this left-wing project. Worth a serious read if you care about your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.