Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Challenges to Implementation

This collection of essays examines the reputed merits of the interdisciplinary curriculum movement that has gained widespread popularity in recent years. Going beyond the platitudes, they explore the complex texture of what actually happens in the classroom when theory meets reality. The contributors provide accounts of how curriculum reform plays out in practice. The questions they address are consequential, the documentation they present about the interdisciplinary movement across different systems, subjects and settings, is thorough. Some of the topics addressed are: how teachers with diverse backgrounds come together to plan curricula; what happens to school culture when an interdisciplinary effort is spearheaded by adminstrators; and what transpires when new curricula are put into practice either at the local school level or across major urban districts.