The Changing Curriculum: Studies in Social Construction

The Changing Curriculum provides a valuable introduction to the curriculum theories of Ivor F. Goodson. As Kincheloe states, this paradigm of curriculum study grasps the multi-dimensionality of the relationship between past and present curricular practice. In this context, Goodson recognizes the ties between history, education and politics. The Changing Curriculum reviews the historical and social emergence of curriculum as a concept and curriculum theory as a practice. The early chapters seek to situate work on curriculum in its full social and ideological context. Later chapters provide examples of this kind of curriculum theory in looking at studies of school subjects and the relationship definitions of curriculum to forms of education, notably the study of American private schools.