In this book Tero Autio traces not only the key philosophical currents that structure traditional Anglo-American instrumental curriculum theory and Didaktik theories of curriculum which are lesser-known in the U.S., but also the divide between them and, implicitly, the opportunities for traversing this divide. Using careful historical and theoretic

In this book Tero Autio traces not only the key philosophical currents that structure traditional Anglo-American instrumental curriculum theory and Didaktik theories of curriculum which are lesser-known in the U.S., but also the divide between them and, implicitly, the opportunities for traversing this divide. Using careful historical and theoretic

This collection of essays from the most prominent scholars in the field of curriculum studies paint an intellectually rich palette of the present state of curriculum research across the countries and continents when the traditionally prevailed national imaginaries give increasingly way to transnational, international, and postnational impulses.

Assembles essays addressing the recurring question of the 'subject,' understood both as human person and school subject, thereby elaborating the subjective and disciplinary character of curriculum studies.

This primer for teachers (prospective and practicing) asks readers to question the historical present and their relation to it, and in so doing, to construct their own understandings of what it means to teach, to study, to become "educated" in the present moment. Curriculum theory is the scholarly effort – inspired by theory in the humanities, arts and interpretive social sciences – to understand the curriculum, defined here as "complicated conversation." Rather than the formulation of objectives to be evaluated by (especially standardized) tests, curriculum is communication informed by academic knowledge, and it is characterized by educational experience. Pinar recasts school reform as school deform in which educational institutions devolve into cram schools preparing for standardized exams, and traces the history of this catastrophe starting in 1950s. Changes in the Second Edition: Introduces Pinar’s formulation of allegories-of-the-present — a concept in which subjectivity, history, and society become articulated through the teacher’s participation in the complicated conversation that is the curriculum; features a new chapter on Weimar Germany (as an allegory of the present); includes new chapters on the future, and on the promises and risks of technology.

In this volume scholars from around the world consider the influential work of William F. Pinar from a variety of "conversations" his ideas have generated. The major focus is on the What, Why, and How of the word "reconceptualization," which involves engaging critically and ethically as public intellectuals with gender, class, and race issues theorized in a variety of disciplines. The book introduces Pinar’s seminal argument for curriculum to return to its root in the word currere (the running of the course of study) and its key concepts: autobiography as alternative to the denial of subjectivity in traditional curriculum studies, study, and place. Issues addressed include the ethics of study both of self and of the discipline of curriculum studies, the politics of presence, the curricular importance of entering the public sphere, the openness to complicating simple solutions, and the ethical dealing with alterity (the state of being other or different; otherness).

Over the past three decades, the standards-based reform movement has transformed K-12 education in the United States, culminating with passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002. Beyond making reasonable accommodations for special needs students, standards-based education pays little attention to other areas of student difference, relying instead on a "rational actor" model of student experience, and ignoring how differences in students' backgrounds and orientations impact their particular experiences of schooling. This book examines the development of standards-based education, with particular scrutiny of the roles of the National Governors' Association and its National Education Summit events. Examination of important documents emerging from those events provides an illustration of the conceptually impoverished understanding of student subjectivity, motivation, and agency inherent in standards-based education. In order to understand both problems with and alternatives to standards-based education, the author examines the roles of ideology, rhetoric, and audience in school policy. In three case studies, the author analyzes several non-school models of education, including Marine Corps bootcamp, Ving Tsun kung fu training, and an online, school resistance community. Johnson argues that examination of these learning contexts provides a better understanding of the shortcomings and dangers of the standards-based model of student subjectivity, and suggests a set of fourteen principles to inform the development of more student-centered alternatives.