Professor Ivor Goodson -

I believe part of the problem of reconceptualising our study of schooling can be illustrated in the basic etymology of curriculum. The word curriculum derives from the Latin word currere, which means to run, and refers to a course (or a racing-chariot). The implications of etymology are that curriculum is thereby socially constructed and defined as a course to be followed, or most significantly, presented. As Barrow notes "as far as etymology goes, therefore the curriculum should be understood to be 'the presented content' for study".(1) Social context and construction by this view is relatively unproblematic for by etymological implication the power of 'reality-definition' is placed firmly in the hands of those who 'draw up' and define the course. The bond between curriculum and sequential prescription then was forged early; it has survived and strengthened over time. Part of the stregthening of this bond has been the emergence of sequential patterns of learning to follow and operationalise the curriculum as prescribed.

References

1. R. Barrow Giving Teaching Back to Teachers: A Critical Introduction to Curriculum Theory, (Brighton, Wheatsheaf and Althouse, 1984) p.3.

2. D. Hamilton and M. Gibbons, Notes on the Origins of the Educational Terms Class and Curriculum (paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Educational Research Association, Boston, April 1986) p.15.

3. op cit p.7.

4. op cit p.14.

5. D. Hamilton, Adam Smith and the Moral Economy of the Classroom System. Journal of Curriculum Studies, vol 12, No 4 October-December 1980 p.286.

6. op cit p.282.

7. ibid.

8. University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate One Hundredth Annual Report to University 29 May 1958.

9. op cit Hamilton, Adam Smith p.282.

10. The Norwood Report Curriculum and Examinations in Secondary Schools. Report of the Committee of the Secondary School Examinations Council, appointed by the President of the Board of Education in 1941 (London HMSO 1943) p.61.

11. E.M. Byrne Planning and Educational Inequality (Slough, NFER 1974) p.29.

12. D. Jenkins and M. Shipman Curriculum: an Introduction (London, Open Books 1976) p.102.

13. W.A. Reid The University and the Sixth Form Curriculum (London, Macmillan 1972) p.106.

14. See Chapter 9.

15. S. Rothblatt Tradition and Change I English Liberal Education: an Essay in History and Culture (London, Faber and Faber 1976) p.45.

16. R. Williams The Long Revolution (London, Penguin 1975) p.165.

17. J.F.C. Morrison The Common People (London, Flamingo 1986) p.292.

18. E.P. Thompson Education and Experience. Fifth Mansbridge Memorial Lecture (Leeds University Press 1968) p.16.

19. W.A. Reid 'Curriculum Change and the Evolution of Educational Constituencies: the English Sixth Form in the Nineteenth Century' in Ivor Goodson (ed) Social Histories of the Secondary Curriculum: Subjects for Study (Lewes, Falmer Press 1985) p.296.

20. ibid.

21. op cit, Thompson p.9.

22. M. Armstrong 'Reconstructing Knowledge: an example' in J. Watts (ed) The Countesthorpe Experience (London, George Allen and Unwin 1977) p.86.

23. R.S. Peters 'What is an Educational Process?' in R.S. Peters (ed) The Concept of Education (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul 1967) p. 2.

References

View all chapters