Field Of Curriculum Studies Research Articles

The Field of Curriculum Studies in the Journal Transnational Curriculum Inquiry (TCI) as an Effect of the Relations between Knowledge and Power:: Science, Counter-Science, Anti-Science?

It analyzes how the discourse of the journal Transnational Curriculum Inquiry (TCI) expressed the process of internationalization and transnationalization of studies in the field of curriculum in the second decade of the 21st century. It is connected with the internationalization movement of the curriculum studies expressed in the objectives of the International Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies (IAACS), one of the most respected entities in the curriculum field, established in 2001. It highlights that the TCI encompasses a complex volume of statements that discuss curriculum practices and policies worldwide, marked by power relations, and it is possible to state that the publications of the journal TCI are constituted by struggles and processes, which show the possibilities of emergence of certain knowledges. It questions: what forces emerge from the Transnational Curriculum Inquiry in discussions about curricula? What effects of the relations between knowledge and power were evident in the articles published in this journal? How do disciplinary fields relate to the stated perspective of curriculum studies seeking a multi/transcultural and cosmopolitan approach? Have curriculum studies predominantly manifested as counter-science and/or anti-science in an insurrectional way?

Intersectionality and Solidarity in Curriculum-Making Theatre Encounters with Marginalized Youth Researcher-Artists

In this article, drawn from my doctoral study, I argue that applied theatre encounters can serve as methods of Deweyian social inquiry and as curriculum-making events that illuminate how youths perceive their roles in social resistance and that offer them an opportunity to serve as artists, researchers, activists and public pedagogues. I situate the study in the field of curriculum studies by placing the research project itself in relation to a William Doll’s 4Rs model of curriculum principles: Richness, Recursion, Relations and Rigor. I posit that the research-based applied theatre practice of ethnodrama can potentially serve as an educational space wherein marginalized youths can integrate qualitative research and experiential knowledge as facilitators of a more just society. The 12 racialized, socioeconomically under-resourced youth participants in Toronto focused on intersectionality and solidarity in their ethnodrama action project. I explore the pedagogical, political and artistic choices these youths made in the process of both devising and presenting their original theatrical piece.

Contextualização curricular numa rede de escolas portuguesas: promessa ou oportunidade perdida?

Na década de 1990, as políticas educativas internacionais e o campo teórico dos estudos curriculares conferiram centralidade ao debate sobre o currículo, conduzindo, nos países de tradição centralista, à passagem do paradigma do currículo uniforme, prescritivo, para um paradigma de contextualização curricular. Em Portugal, a introdução deste paradigma pelas políticas curriculares determinou a necessidade de prescrever às escolas a elaboração de um projeto curricular. A partir de então, a literatura tem demonstrado uma conceção das dinâmicas de construção, implementação e avaliação de projetos curriculares como documentos burocráticos, obedecendo a uma lógica da normatividade decretada, elaborados sobretudo para os painéis de avaliação externa das escolas, incapazes deste modo de implementar mudanças nas práticas curriculares. Neste texto, apresentam-se os resultados da avaliação de 12 projetos curriculares de uma rede colaborativa de escolas portuguesas com recurso à análise de conteúdo.

Internationalization and "Pensamiento Curricular Latinoamericano"

This text draws upon the concept of internationalization in Curriculum Studies to self-reflect on the existence and possibilities of Latin American curriculum thinking. I think of internationalization not just as a moment of the U.S. field but also as a dimension of Curriculum Studies thought from a planetary horizon. Therefore, grounding my understanding of internationalization as a dimension of the field of curriculum here by juxtaposing the historical development of the field in the United States in relation to Latinoamerica, I would like to suggest again that the next step to building an international field of curriculum studies is enlarging the conversation beyond its Anglo-Saxon and European influences. My work may be understood as an attempt to bring the Latin American educational tradition more strongly into the international conversation that is now Curriculum Studies. In doing so, I am, to some extent, rejoining two educational traditions, the Latina American and the Anglo-American, to continue a conversation already begun in the 1970s but interrupted since then.

Curriculum as a Discourse: Using Critical Discourse Analysis to Revive Curriculum Reconceptualists' Thought

Curriculum reconceptualists seek to reshape the field of curriculum studies. Unlike traditional curricularists, theyreprobate the technical approach of curriculum development because of its pure functional and managerial tendency.Reconceptualists look at curriculum from various philosophy-saturated perspectives. One of their claims isconsidering curriculum as a discourse, and the main task curricularists have to cope with is to understand thisdiscourse.Unfortunately, reconceptualists penetrate deeply into philosophy without offering a clear practical vision that helpsthem transform their insights. In this paper, I argue that reconceptualists can bridge the gap through consideringCritical Discourse Analysis (CDA) assumptions. The idea of understanding curriculum as a discourse could betheoretically and practically detected when employing (CDA).

Tracing spectres of whiteness: discourse and the construction of teaching subjects in urban Aboriginal education

ABSTRACTThe author traces how discourse functions in the context of a school-based, urban Aboriginal education initiative, with a focus on the construction and organization of teaching subjects. Critical discourse analysis that traces spectres reveals some of the ways that whiteness and Eurocentrism create the possibilities for, and the conditions in which teachers take up, the positions: victim of racism, arbiter of authenticity, and rescuer. Consideration of the multiple, complex, and shifting positions teachers occupy within whiteness in general, and in colonial systems of education in particular, offers unique possibilities when untangling and reconfiguring teachers' constructions of Aboriginality/Indigeneity and responses to Aboriginal/Indigenous education. This theory building also contributes to the larger field of curriculum studies by demonstrating how consideration of ‘unheroic tales’ can aid in theorizing teacher identity and difference, both within and beyond the markers Indigenous/non-Indigenous.

Translanguaging and the multilingual turn: epistemological reconceptualization in the fields of language and implications for reframing language in curriculum studies

New challenges in education, stemming from the forces of globalization and the continued diversification of the student body, illuminate the need for a reexamination of the role of language in curriculum studies. Through a discussion of the issues around multilingualism and translanguaging and the shift in perspective that these topics have provoked in the fields of SLA, TESOL, BE, I present the relevance and implications of this critical language approach for the field of curriculum studies. My commentary is guided by three questions. Initially, I investigate, how do the purposes and audiences of the May and García and Wei compare? I continue on to discuss, what are common key themes or issues raised by the books? And lastly, I consider, how do the concepts discussed in each book inform each other and the field of curriculum studies at large? I provide concluding thoughts on ways for language as critical pedagogy to be taken up in the broader domains of curriculum studies.

Awakeness, complexity and emergence: Learning through curriculum theory in teacher education

In this self-study research, we explore how the work of significant and diverse curriculum scholars informed the learning of teacher candidates within an intensive summer semester that serves as the foundation for a Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP) at a Canadian university. Questions that guided our inquiry include: How did teacher candidates take up and negotiate theory as part of their emerging professional identities? How did teacher candidates understand the relationship between pedagogy and their learning of/through curriculum theory? How did teacher candidates embody diverse theories and how did they understand the significance of this within and beyond this foundational semester? And finally, as teacher educators, how are our beliefs, understandings and practices developing through this self-study? We employed a qualitative, grounded theory approach and engaged in iterative cycles of analysis with learning artifacts and interview transcripts from 26 teacher candidates. We identified the rich and layered themes of emergence, complexity, and awakeness, which revealed shifts in teacher candidates’ awareness in relation to their evolving identities. We discuss these themes in relation to the above questions and locate the influences of the selected theorists. This research contributes to the field of curriculum studies through offering a living case that explores how taking up diverse and contemporary curriculum theorists has potential to both support teacher candidates to experience praxis and shift the ground of teacher education.

Understanding Curriculum as Phenomenon, Field, and Design: A Multidimensional conceptualization

This paper searches for an understanding of curriculum as a phenomenon, a field, and a design process. Curriculum is a complex phenomenon. Curriculum is also an “interdisciplinary academic field devoted to understanding curriculum” (Pinar, 2011, ix). In addition, curriculum also refers to the process of design through which the content of schooling is verified. The context of my endeavour is teacher education. In fact, thinking about curriculum becomes even more complex when thinking about how to teach it to future teachers. It seems to me that at this level we cannot avoid to assume a pluralistic view of the field thinking what is its historical legacy, including the major gap between curriculum theory and curriculum development. Therefore, the field of curriculum studies has changed by incorporating different dimensions to the concept of curriculum, making it a layered or multidimensional concept. I argue that a multidimensional concept of curriculum can be a powerful theoretical tool for understanding curriculum, to organized and create knowledge about it, and to inform the process of curriculum design.

Entre histoire et mémoire : comment la guerre influence la conscience historique des élèves québécois à la fin du cursus secondaire

Despite the limited research in the field of curriculum studies, the First World War plays an important role in Quebec students’ curiosity and understanding of this important historical event, and is worthy of further examination. Left to learn the details of this event by themselves, students often develop their own understanding of the war, which, in turn, influences their historical consciousness. This paper explores the questions: What is students’ understanding of the war, and in what ways does this understanding influence young Quebecers’ historical consciousness, especially at the end of their High School years? This paper will try to answer these questions using the results of an empirical study conducted on 30 sixteen-year-old students from the province of Quebec.

Políticas curriculares para o Ensino Médio no Rio Grande do Sul e a constituição de uma docência inovadora

This study, in the fi eld of Curriculum Studies, aims at establishing a diagnosis of teaching conceptions that have emerged from High School curriculum policies in Rio Grande do Sul State (Brazil) and have been implemented over the last decade. By using documental analysis and interviews with High School professionals, we have studied the major curriculum guidelines produced in the context here considered. We have concluded that at the same time that innovative teaching is produced aiming at innovation, competitiveness and economic development, knowledge is weakened in its objective dimension. Keywords: teaching, High School, curriculum policies, the State of Rio Grande do Sul.

Políticas curriculares para o Ensino Médio no Rio Grande do Sul e a constituição de uma docência inovadora

This study, in the fi eld of Curriculum Studies, aims at establishing a diagnosis of teaching conceptions that have emerged from High School curriculum policies in Rio Grande do Sul State (Brazil) and have been implemented over the last decade. By using documental analysis and interviews with High School professionals, we have studied the major curriculum guidelines produced in the context here considered. We have concluded that at the same time that innovative teaching is produced aiming at innovation, competitiveness and economic development, knowledge is weakened in its objective dimension.Keywords: teaching, High School, curriculum policies, the State of Rio Grande do Sul.

Race, Memory, and Master Narratives: A Critical Essay on U.S. Curriculum History

In his rich and detailed reflection on the field of curriculum studies over the past 100 or so years, Schubert () remarks thattwo emphases honored for over a century remain at the forefront of curr...

Teoria do currículo: o que é e por que é importante

Este artigo discute a importância da teoria do currículo e de seus especialistas no debate contemporâneo sobre currículo escolar. Após um breve relato sobre a evolução no campo dos estudos curriculares, o autor discorre sobre os papéis crítico e normativo da teoria do currículo, sugerindo que esses dois objetivos têm sido separados, em detrimento de ambos. Em seguida, ao defender que a educação é uma atividade prática e especializada, o autor sugere que a teoria do currículo una esses dois papéis e enxergue o currículo como forma de conhecimento especializado. Finalmente, postula que os teóricos do currículo se debrucem sobre como desenvolver currículos que ampliem - e não somente reproduzam - as oportunidades de aprendizagem.

Book Review: Postfeminist education? Girls and the sexual politics of schooling

In, Postfeminist Education?, Jessica Ringrose (2013) powerfully illustrates how postfeminist media discourses have infiltrated Western educational policy and curricula. Ringrose’s book contributes significantly to the field of curriculum studies for the ways that she knits postfeminist media exemplars, poststructural and (post) psychosocial theory, and educational policy together to demonstrate the shortcomings in current policies and practices that shape girls’ experiences in school.

Visual research methods in education: In between difference and indifference

The aim of this paper is to support critical and scholarly debates that relate to the increasing role of visual research in education, youth studies, sociology, and studies of mental health. Researching in fields where young people are central exposes many struggles, not least issues of how to represent students who end up on the margins. School disaffection intersects with curriculum practices. When threading together visual research methods and matters of curriculum studies, seduction can set in, and unintentionally curriculum research can become indifferent to difference, the counterpoint often sought by researchers. Some scholars may argue that this debate has been well rehearsed in the curriculum field; I, however, take the opposite view. The constraints of curriculum studies, issues of student disaffection and the exclusions of schooling - when analysed through the perspectives of visual research - trouble our research designs and understandings of data and therefore require more, not less, interrogation. Rethinking the intersection points between visual research methods (VRM) and visuality, a concept that is critical to cultural and visual studies, opens out new spaces in the field of curriculum studies and reframes the methodological decisionmaking process for researching issues that pertain to student disaffection.

Reading Schwab’s the ‘Practical’ as an invitation to a curriculum enquiry

In this retrospective essay reviewing the implications of Joseph Schwab’s essay, ‘The practical: A language for education’ (2013 [1970]), 40 + years after its first publication, I identify two ‘practicals’. The first is a comprehensive ‘Practical 1.1’ embracing ends, subject matter, problem source and methods. This ‘practical’ has radical implications for curriculum studies, and for educational theory and research more generally. However, these implications have not been recognized. On the other hand, Schwab’s deliberation-centred interpretation of the ‘practical’, the ‘Practical 1.2’, has been widely discussed but has not captured the field of curriculum studies because it fails to map onto the structures of most school systems.

Knowledge, judgement and the curriculum: on the past, present and future of the idea of the Practical

In 1970, Joseph Schwab published the first of four papers that argued for a turn to the idea of the Practical in curriculum research and practice. In this paper, I revisit Schwab’s original paper and explore the extent to which his case for the Practical is still relevant today. I first look at the past of the deliberative tradition in which Schwab’s argument is located. I argue that a more precise engagement with the work of Aristotle – particularly the distinction between making/production and doing, and between knowledge of the eternal and of the variable – can strengthen Schwab’s case and allow for a better understanding of the kind of knowledge and judgement needed in education. In relation to the present, I highlight three ways in which the current context has changed from when Schwab published his paper. These concern the strongly diminished space for teachers’ professional judgement; the rise of a call for evidence-based education; and the shift in curriculum studies away from practical questions. To (re)connect the field of curriculum studies and research with questions about the ‘doing’ of curriculum is, in my view, where a deliberative approach such as the one articulated by Schwab remains highly relevant.

The end of schooling as we know it?

About a year ago, the Journal of Curriculum Studies received a contribution written by Daniel Tanner, one of the most experienced and respected scholars in the field of curriculum studies and a lon...

Releasing the Social Imagination: Art, the Aesthetic Experience, and Citizenship in Education

This paper is about releasing the social imagination through art in education. This research examines possibilities to use the aesthetic experience as a means to awaken students’ consciousness for advancing democratic values, including multiple perspectives, freedom, and responsibility. Drawing from Maxine Greene’s (1995, 2001) philosophy of social imagination and aesthetic education, this inquiry aims to enrich discourse in the field of curriculum studies, creativity, and citizenship education. Six educators initiated a social imagination project separately. They designed, implemented, and assessed a semester-long project founded in Greene’s philosophy of social imagination. The participants challenged habitual ways of thinking about self/other, culture, and community through active engagement between art and the subject. The aesthetic encounters with art (a) fostered the participants’ wide-awakeness about the society and (b) engaged participants to imagining “things as if they could be otherwise” (Greene, 1995:p. 16). An emphasis on the aesthetic experience through art contributes to advancing democratic values in a pluralistic society.