This article deals with the study of natural sciences in non-compulsory secondary education from the end of the nineteenth century until the educational reform in 1970. We begin with a critical review of the ways in which the secondary education curriculum and textbooks of this period conveyed established knowledge about natural sciences. We then…

This article looks at shifts in pedagogy used to prepare school leaders. "Leaders for America's Schools" is the focus around which the authors build their case, beginning with a recap of the early phases of administrator training. Next, the authors examine "A Nation at Risk" and the impact the educational reform movement had on administration…

As the issue of school reform grows ever more intense, it is imperative that we learn what we can from previous efforts. The new social studies was a 1960's attempt to transform the teaching of history and the social sciences in schools. With origins in the Cold War, the movement sought to develop critical thinkers through "inquiry" and…

Medical education is a rapidly expanding discipline with its practitioners drawn from a mix of backgrounds. Among them there is an increased understanding of the centrality of the curriculum process in the translation of educational ideas in practice. There are four main trends that underlie this increased understanding: a widened conception of…

Analyzes the history of the development of African-American studies as a social science and humanities discipline, and contends that the field is so new it has no history of its own. The inception of the Temple University (Pennsylvania) School of Afrocentric Scholarship marks the discipline's real birth. (SLD)