Friday, December 24, 2010

What is this blog?


Welcome to Curriculum Theory & Development.  This website invites you to reflect on key aspects of curriculum from historical, contemporary, & critical perspectives.  Twelve questions explored in this blog include:

1.     Where shall we point the arrow of time?
2.     What is curriculum … & is it locked into a time-loop?
3.     (How) is universalism bad?
4.     What’s the problem with objectives?
5.     How in/efficient & un/scientific is curriculum?
6.     What do standard units actually measure?
7.     Is curriculum a secret agent of social reproduction?
8.     What constricts the freedom of curriculum & how can curriculum enrich freedom?
9.     How important is reciprocity?
10.  How culturally responsive is curriculum?
11.  How does curriculum construct sex, gender, & sexual orientation?
12.  What can we see in the crystal ball of curriculum change?

To explore these twelve dimensions of curriculum, reflective passages are interspersed with sets of questions and lists of influential books & articles.  Peruse these sections to reflect on these aspects of curriculum & change. 

In creating this website I have drawn extensively from The Curriculum Studies Reader (3rd ed.), edited by David J. Flinders & Stephen J. Thornton.  Book excerpts/articles that can be found in this anthology are written in blue (along with their corresponding chapter numbers).  All required course readings are bolded & are written in uppercase letters. While book titles are italicized throughout this blog, article titles are not.  Happy reading.