Understanding the Curriculum: the Approach through Case Studies

In the decade through which the Journal oj Curriculum Studies has been published, curriculum issues have increased in significance in the educational debate both in the UK and in the USA. In the USA the deterioration of the inner cities, the plight of the ethnic minorities, blacks in particular, the increased politicization of schooling issues which accompanied integration, the disillusion with progressivism, and the debate about resources have dramatized policy issues and questions about what schools are doing. Here, the progressive development of comprehensive reorganization, accelerated reform of the structure of the educational system, ROSLA, and finally economic stringency accompanied by demands for accountability have forced curriculum issues to the attention of the mass public. Putting the whole ability range, the whole social range, boys and girls together, under one roof—not to mention split sites—has created a situation unparalled since the 1880s. Other kinds of innovation have moved decisively from the non-maintained ’progressive’ schools into the state sector. Schools are run increasingly in a more participative, even collegiate style, since complexity exceeds the capacity of the Head as single decision-maker, and many of us feel that professional self-respect requires that we at least witness and preferably join in making the decisions. Now, since it is ’best seen as a system, an organic whole, based on a theory with associated organizational structures, roles and relationships’, 1 curriculum is clearly at the centre of policy decisions in schools. What is to inform such decisions, give them direction and a rationale beyond mere pragmatism? If not a formål theory, since that is premature, at any rate a literature, one which, as far as it can be, is accessible and relevant to the concerns of administratörs and planners, teacher educators and, not least, serving teachers; but relevant as well to theoretical understanding. To achieve and implement curriculum innovations calls for political and administrative skills of no mean order and certainly for more than parochial vision.