Curriculum and Research

This chapter provides an examination of the relationship between research and curriculum. Examples of the knowledge gained from research examining if a curriculum works (its effectiveness) and how a curriculum works (its processes) are explained. Attention is provided as well to the gaps in the knowledge base generated by research. In regard to understanding how curriculum works, these are significant. These gaps are examined in relation to how curriculum and what is important within it are framed within research; how teachers and children as actors within curriculum have been examined within research; and how availability of outcome measures has impacted research questions and conclusions. A thesis of the chapter is that the gaps that exist are related in part to a lack of theorizing about these aspects of curriculum, both on the part of researchers and those who develop curriculum.