Curriculum context
Much of the literature on curriculum context deals with context relevance (Tyler, 1949;
Bonser and Grundy, 1988; UNESCO, 2000). Context relevance is concerned with the
fidelity of the curriculum to its stated goals. The premise here is that the stated goals are
a true reflection of what society expects from the school system.
This paper will however, view context from a slightly different perspective. Context here
is concerned with the environment in which the curriculum is developed. In other words,
context is the summation of the factors that influence the curriculum development
process. The contextual focus for this paper will be the public school curriculum of
Kenya.