Uses social and historical arguments to examine idea of curriculum as institutionalized learning. Discusses institutional categories. Draws implications for theory and research. (Contains 23 references.)(PKP)

Curriculum is a perennially elusive and multifaceted concept. After the frustrating results of curriculum reform efforts in the 1960s and their dismantling and reversal in the 1980s, arguments for historical study are considerable. As Great Britain's example shows, we must rehabilitate the historical study of school subjects. Includes 23…

Discusses significance and impact of writings by University of Chicago scholar Joseph J. Schwab on the field of curriculum, focusing on his article "The Practical: A Language for Curriculum" (School Review; v78 n1 p1-23 1999). (PKP)

A paper drafted nearly 30 years ago defines distinctions between theoretical and ideological inquiry, between curricular and noncurricular events, and between instructional and agential kinds of curricular events. (31 references) (MLF)

The holistic approach to curriculum has four essential characteristics: (1) integrating questions about means and ends; (2) using many specific inquiry modes; (3) emphasizing conceptual questions; and (4) generating certain methodological and practical needs a holistic vision to make sense. Includes seven references. (MLH)

Attempting to define curriculum inquiry, this study examines published reports of curriculum inquiry and classifies the problems studied, the methods used, and the solutions proposed. (MCG)

Argues that practical curriculum inquiry offers a research perspective that more fully embraces the democratic and personal than does research as usually conceived. (MLF)

Arguing that curriculum research can be organized and prioritized according to reasonable criteria, this article defines "curriculum practice" and "curriculum research," explains how they relate to each other, and reviews current work in curriculum research. Curriculum research is hampered by lack of longitudinal studies and the separation of…

Examined are the ongoing and proposed approaches to curriculum research. Individual research approaches are classified according to six general foci that explicate the characteristics of each curriculum research approach and identify the variants, limitations, and references of each approach. (SI)

The curriculum is not a training ground for economic productivity. Curriculum should interact fully with students' world and encourage students' theoretical understanding of their social, emotional, and intellectual encounters. (10 references) (MLF)

Treating curriculum out of context is mostly responsible for the disappointments of curriculum theory in practice. Decontextualization has conceptually separated curriculum from its design and use; operationally, curriculum is separated from its structural and sociocultural contexts. The alternative--curriculum in context--can inform research,…

Relates how historical developments initiated the curriculum reform movement, which caused curriculum studies to become vulnerable to reconceptualization. Traces the movement from Sputnik in 1957 through reconceptualists' opposition to the mainstream field in the 1970s. The opposition has now become the field itself, which is characterized by…

Curriculum theorists must raise their own institutions' level of consciousness about fundamental principles in the curriculum development process. Curriculum researchers must align themselves with curriculum decision makers in other institutions and curriculum inquiries must study actors, actions, and the consequences of actions in natural…

Careful work in comparing, analyzing, and critiquing the positions and communications put forth by various professional curriculum organizations would be valuable to the curriculum research community. Provides an example: "Principles for Australian Curriculum Reform," prepared by the Australian Curriculum Studies Association (ACSA). (MLF)

Describes the purposes and approach of a global organization of scholars interested in curriculum and instruction research. The research mission facilitates collaboration on cross-cultural investigations of educational systems and problems and the exchange of professional knowledge within a multicultural world community. Discusses current projects…