Knowledge for the Masses: World Models and National Curricula, 1920–1986 1

Abstract

Classical theorists in the sociology of knowledge such as Marx, Durkheim, Mannheim and Scheler sought to establish that the content and validity of ideas are ultimately tied to the social and economic interests in society. National educational institutions—which presently enroll about one-fifth of the world’s inhabitants —have become the most important mechanism for organizing and transmitting knowledge to the young. The types of socially approved knowledge taught in mass and elite educational institutions and the official endorsement of that knowledge as reflected in national school curricula deserve more attention from sociologists. School curricula are nationally patterned collections of socially approved knowledge that, if compared cross-nationally, should show considerable diversity. The structure of school curricula—especially mass curricula—is closely linked to the rise of standardized models of society and to the increasing dominance of standardized models of education as one component of these general models.