The Curricular Reform of Secondary Education in the Province of Córdoba: An Analysis of the Official Proposal from Basil Bernstein’s Perspective

Abstract

This paper addresses the curriculum reform of the Basic Cycle of secondary education, initiated in Córdoba in 2009. Its objective is to approach the modality of educational code specific to the reform and the pedagogic discourse underlying it.

Official documents are analyzed: general guidelines, curriculum design, and pedagogical formats. The theoretical framework of the study draws on the perspective of Basil Bernstein, which explains the transmission of the code—that is, the subjective disposition to think, feel, and act in a certain way—through pedagogic discourse.

According to Bernstein, the “pedagogic code” is imposed through an “official pedagogic discourse” which, in this case, is embodied in the ministerial documents of the reform. These documents make explicit the three messages of the code: contents, or curriculum; how they are to be transmitted, or pedagogy; and how their appropriation by students will be verified, or evaluation.

The results obtained indicate that the reform privileges an integrated curriculum model, the application of varied pedagogical formats—seminars, discussion forums, workshops, among others—and flexible forms of evaluation. This suggests that the reform promotes the development of an “integrated pedagogic code” and the application of “invisible pedagogies,” understood as systems of meanings with weak classifications and framing.