Curriculum theory and the question of knowledge: a response to the six papers

Abstract

In this paper, following some brief introductory remarks, I provide a context to this Symposium by presenting a brief autobiographical account explaining how I became involved in curriculum theory and the idea of a knowledge-led curriculum and how I was led to write the paper under discussion. I then make brief comments on each of the six papers individually, concluding with some thoughts about the implications of the collection of papers as a whole for the future of curriculum theory.

Keywords:

• curriculum
• curriculum theory
• sociology
• sociology of knowledge
• disciplines
• school subjects

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Joe Muller, Zongyi Deng and Ian Westbury for their helpful comments on an earlier draft.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. At some point, it would be interesting to explore her idea of the ‘ecology of knowledge’, and how it contrasts with a sociology of knowledge.

2. Personal communication from Professor Antonia Kupker (University of Dresden).

3. The impact on curriculum theory of post-structural ideas of Derrida and Foucault mean that it is less and less a specialized field and more a strand of the more loosely defined field of cultural studies.

4. In this response and in the original paper, I have not been concerned with those traditions which celebrate anti-rationalism and anti-modernization. The strengths of these movements, such as they are, are better understood within a more historically and culturally sensitive concept of rationality of the kind we find the philosophy of Cassirer, rather than renouncing it.

5. I am missing out the French Enlightenment tradition because with the exception of Bourdieu, for whom the curriculum as distinct from the broader concept of culture, was not a priority, so little has been translated.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael Young

Michael Young is a professor of Education at University College London, Institute of EducationLondon, UK; e-mail: [email protected]. His most recently published books are (with Stephanie Allais) The implementation of National Qualification Frameworks across five continents (Routledge 2013), (with J Muller) Knowledge, Expertise and the Professions (London: Routledge 2014) and (with D Lambert) Knowledge and the Future School (London: Bloomsbury 2014). His new book with (Johan Muller) Curriculum and the Specialisation of Knowledge will be published by Routledge in early 2016. His current research interests are in the sociology of education, specifically the school curriculum and professional education and professional knowledge and the role of qualifications.