The Oxford Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies addresses the central question of Curriculum Studies as: What is worthwhile? Writ large, Curriculum Studies pertains to what human beings should know, need, experience, do, be, become, overcome, contribute, share, wonder, imagine, invent, and improve. While the Encyclopedia treats curriculum as definitely central to schooling, it also shows how curriculum scholars work on myriad other institutionalized and non-institutionalized dimensions of life that shape the ways humans learn to perceive, conceptualize, and act in the world. Thus, while the Encyclopedia considers common curriculum categories (e.g., curriculum theory, history, purposes, development, design, enactment, evaluation), it does so through a critical eye that provides counter-narratives to neoliberal, colonial, and imperial forces that have too often dominated curriculum thought, policy, and practice. While the Encyclopedia presents contemporary perspectives on prevailing topics such as science, mathematics, social studies, literacy/reading/literature/language arts, music, art, physical education, testing, special education, and the liberal arts, many of the articles also show how curriculum is embedded in ideology, human rights, mythology, museums, media, literature/film, geographical spaces, community organizing, social movements, cultures, race relations, gender, social class, immigration, activist work, popular pedagogy, revolution, diasporic events, and much more.
To provide such perspectives, articles draw upon diverse scholarly traditions in addition to established qualitative and quantitative approaches (e.g., feminist, womanist, oral, critical theory, critical race theory, critical dis/ability studies, Indigenous ways of knowing, documentary, dialogue, postmodern, cooperative, posthuman, and diverse modes of expression). Moreover, such orientations–often drawn from neglected work from Asia, the Global South, Aboriginal regions, and other often excluded realms–reveal positions that counter official or dominant neoliberal impositions by emphasizing hidden, null, outside, material, embodied, lived, and transgressive curricula that foster emancipatory, ecologically interdependent, and continuously growing constructs. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies is the most comprehensive resource available in this field, and an essential reference for any student or scholar engaged in education research. All articles are also available online in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, where they will be continuously updated as the field evolves.