Paper Title
CHALLENGING THE DOMINANT KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS THROUGH CRITICAL CURRICULUM STUDIES EDUCATION

Abstract
The curriculum is a site for struggle, arguments, and reconstruction of the truth Au (2012). In Au’s book Critical Curriculum Studies Education, Consciousness and the Politics of Knowing, he used the word “critical” to imply serious deliberations and debates over what a field takes for granted. This book offers a novel framework for thinking about how curriculum relates to students’ understanding of the world around them and many concerns surrounding the politics of knowing the curriculum. It is, therefore, important to engage in curriculum conversation over our education, politics, theories, policies, and practices, looking at the realities of our society today. There are already dominant ideas that influence our education, policies, and practice. This study considers these dominant societal knowledge systems and how they produce inequalitiesin our education and society at large. This study adopts Au’s (2012) critical curriculum studies education perspectives to challenge the dominant knowledge systems perpetuating societal inequality. It is important to emphasize that critical curriculum studies in this study will be contextualized within the broader curriculum studies because the field is still evolving, and some long-standing debates and controversies need scholarly scrutinization. Also, marginalized groups are socially situated in ways that make it more possible for them to be aware of things and ask questions than the non-marginalized. This studyargues that knowledge is shaped by one's social location, influence, experiences, and positionality. Where one resides and what influences the person significantly impacts the person’s social, economic, and politicallife.The study, therefore,seeksto offer a critical critique of the dominant knowledge narratives perpetuating social injustice and promoting the knowledge production of the marginalized in society. It alsoseeks to amplify the voices and experiences of those often silenced or marginalized to produce more inclusive, equitable, and socially just knowledge through curriculum studies. This study supports the curricular standpoint that offers a tool for justifying the privileges of marginalized or oppressed groups in our curricula. The curricular standpoints agitate for the understanding of the material and social reality as it exists more truthfully and objectively than what hegemonic perspectives provide us (Au, 2012).