Course-5 Understanding Disciplines and School Subjects pmd

1.6.2. Introduction
Experts in the field of school subjects have suggested that  school subjects are not
given, nor are they direct translations of academic disciplines. They can have different and
variable relationships to academic disciplines and applied fields. School subjects are human
constructions in response to social, economic, cultural, political, and educational realities
and needs. They are “uniquely purpose – built educational enterprises, designed with and
through educational imagination towards educative ends.”The formation of a school subject
entails a theory of content –a special way of selecting, framing, and translating content for
educational purposes. Knowing the content of a school subject thus entails knowing more
than the content itself; it entails an understanding of the theory of content that is crucial for
disclosing the educational potential embodied in the content. Hence, in the present unit, let
us understand the content that forms each of the school subject.