It is unwise to give even a philosophically competent school head the power to set curriculum policy. In a democratic society that power should be held by the community rather than by technocrats because of the possibility of authoritarian abuse by specialists not accountable to the larger community. (IS)

School subjects do not hold an equally secure position in any educational system. Some subjects are required of all children, some are required of only some children, and some are not required at all. It is the task of this paper to show how people talk about subjects with respect to their place in the school curriculum. The social valuing of…

Adult educators create a curriculum whenever they explicitly or implicitly select some objects of knowledge over others, or choose a particular way to handle knowledge in their pedagogy. When the interests reflected in a curriculum are left unexamined, the role of knowledge as a phenomenon of power is not addressed and inequitable social…