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V'i ‘ V v ' ' I m t I I u > • ^k \ ,}• '^V -■.V I . fZ- j .-v >» .1 □ -iW £1 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.0rg/details/conflictingconceOOOOeisn Conflicting Conceptions of Curriculum THE NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION Series on Contemporary Educational Issues Kenneth J. Rehage, Series Editor The 1974 Titles Conflicting Conceptions of Curriculum, Elliot Eisner and Elizabeth Vallance, Editors Crucial Issues in Testing, Ralph W. Tyler and Richard M. Wolf, Editors Cultural Pluralism, Edgar G. Epps, Editor Rethinking Educational Equality, Andrew Kopan and Herbert Walberg, Editors The National Society for the Study of Education also publishes Year¬ books which are distributed by the University of Chicago Press. In¬ quiries regarding all publications of the Society, as well as inquiries about membership in the Society, may be addressed to the Secretary- Treasurer, 5835 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago, 60637. Committee on an Expanded Publication Program Daniel U. Levine, Herbert Walberg, cochairmen Edgar G. Epps Raquel H. Montenegro Robert J. Havighurst William Spady Harriet Talmage Kenneth J. Rehage, ex officio Board of Directors of the Society-1973 Jeanne Chall John I. Goodlad Luvern L. Cunningham Robert J. Havighurst L. Gage Harold G. Shane Kenneth J. Rehage, ex officio Herman G. Richey, Editor ' Conflicting Conceptions of Curriculum Edited by Elliot W. psner and Elizabeth Vallance Stanford University JflriEutrlian Publialitttg (Cnrporation 2526 Grove Street Berkeley, California 94704 3>S.oo/ / ISBN 8211-0411-X Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 73-17616 © 1974 by McCutchan Publishing Corporation Printed in the United States of America Series Foreword “Controversy in educational discourse,” say the editors of this provocative collection of essays, “most often reflects a basic conflict in priorities concerning the form and content of curriculum and the goals toward which schools should strive. The intensity of the con¬ flict and the apparent difficulty in resolving it can most often be traced to a failure to recognize these conflicting conceptions of cur¬ riculum.” The purpose of this volume is to assist those who engage in such discourse with the essential task of identifying and examining in a systematic way the assumptions underlying each of five common orientations toward the field of curriculum. As the editors point out, there are clearly alternate ways of formulating distinctive orienta¬ tions to the field. The five formulations presented here, however, may well serve as a useful means of classifying views commonly taken in current arguments about curriculum. Conflicting Conceptions of Curriculum is one of four titles in the 1974 Series on Contemporary Educational Issues published in paper¬ back format under the auspices of the National Society for the Study of Education. Other titles in the Series are: Crucial Issues in Testing, edited by Ralph W. Tyler and Richard M. Wolf; V VI Series Foreword Cultural Pluralism, edited by Edgar G. Epps; Rethinking Educational Equality, edited by Andrew Kopan and Herbert Walberg. With this new set of four volumes the Society continues its pro¬ gram, begun in 1971, of bringing out timely books that will provide a background for informed discussion of critical issues in education. Kenneth J. Rehage for the Committee on the Expanded Publication Program of the National Society for the Study of Education Contributors Carl Bereiter, Professor of Applied Psychology, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Gary D. Brooks, Assistant Professor of Educational Administration and Director, Office of Institutional Studies, University of Texas Richard W. Burns, Professor of Education, University of Texas, El Paso Elliot W. Eisner, Professor of Education and Art, Stanford University Robert Gagne, Professor of Educational Research, Florida State Uni¬ versity Ralph P. Goldman, Doctoral Candidate, Teachers College, Colum¬ bia University P. H. Hirst, Professor of Education, University of Cambridge Maurice P. Hunt, Professor of Educational Foundations, Fresno State College vii Contributors Joseph S. Junell, College Supervisor, Central Washington State Col¬ lege, Ellensburg John Mann, Assistant Professor of Education, Johns Hopkins Univer¬ sity Lawrence E. Metcalf, Professor of Secondary Education and Social Studies, University of Illinois Harold J. Noah, Professor of Economics and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University R. S. Peters, Professor of Education, Institute of Education, Univer¬ sity of London Philip H. Phenix, Professor of Philosophy and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University Joseph J. Schwab, Visiting Fellow, Center for the Study of Demo¬ cratic Institutions, Santa Barbara Harold G. Shane, University Professor of Education, Indiana Univer¬ sity Robert E. Silverman, Chairman, Department of Psychology, Univer¬ sity College of Arts and Science, New York University, Bronx Elizabeth Vallance, Doctoral Candidate, School of Education, Stan¬ ford University William H. Weber, Assistant Professor of Economics, Agnes Scott College Contents Introduction. Five Conceptions of Curriculum: Their Roots and Implications for Curriculum Planning Elliot W. Eisner dind Elizabeth Vallance 1 Part One. Curriculum as the Development of Cognitive Processes 1. Elementary School: Necessity or Convenience? Carl Bereiter 20 2. Processes, Problem Solving, and Curriculum Reform Richard W. Burns and Gary D. Brooks 37 Part Two. Curriculum as Technology 3. Educational Technology as Technique Robert M. Gagne 50 4. Using the S-R Reinforcement Model Robert E. Silverman 64 5. Some Economic Models of Curriculum Structure Ralph E. Goldman, William H. Weber, and Harold J. Noah 80 ix Contents X Part Three. Self-Actualization, or Curriculum as Consummatory Experience 6. Is Rational Man Our First Priority? Joseph 106 S. Junell 7. Transcendence and the Curriculum Philip El. Phenix 117 Part Four. Curriculum for Social Reconstruction-Relevance 8. Relevance and the Curriculum Lawrence E. Metcalf and Maurice P. Hunt 136 9. Political Power and the High School Curriculum John S. Mann 147 10. The Rediscovery of Purpose in Education Harold G. Shane 154 Part Five. Curriculum as Academic Rationalism 11. The Concept of the Structure of a Discipline Joseph J. Schwab 162 12. The Curriculum P. H. Hirst and R. S. Peters 176 Conclusion. Applying the Five Curricular Orientations to Man: A Course of Study Elliot W. Eisner 193 Introduction Five Conceptions of Curriculum: Their Roots and Implications for Curriculum Planning Elliot W. Eisner and Elizabeth Vallance American education today, perhaps more than in the past, is stud¬ ded with a variety of conflicting conceptions of the goals, content, and organization of curriculum. The complexity of educational thought is manifested not only in the diversity of papers presented in professional meetings and printed in professional journals; it is also apparent in debates, discussions, and controversies dramatizing school board and PTA meetings, and it is reflected and amplified by the involvement of the general public through the mass media. The controversies we refer to deal on an overt level with issues surrounding alternative schools, conflicting roles of vocational and academic education in the school curriculum, concern with a stu¬ dent’s academic achievement in the “solid” subjects, educational ad¬ monitions to enable children to “learn how to learn,” purposes and uses of accountability procedures, and tbe use of input-output mod¬ els of educational practice. On a more fundamental level, however, the debates and conflicts generated by each of these themes derive necessarily from the degree of incompatibility between the values and goals underlying each side of the issue being debated. Contro¬ versy in educational discourse most often reflects a basic conflict in priorities concerning tbe form and content of curriculum and the 1 2 Conflicting Conceptions of Curriculum goals toward which schools should strive; the intensity of the conflict and the apparent difficulty in resolving it can most often be traced to a failure to recognize conflicting conceptions of curriculum. Public educational discourse frequently does not bother to examine its con¬ ceptual underpinnings. To the student of curriculum, then, the richness of issues and values in the field provides an arena that can be either a dynamic and stimulating resource or a conceptual jungle difficult to define and almost impossible to manage. Students of education—both those pre¬ paring for practical work in curriculum and instruction and those already in the field—might find helpful a set of signposts that distin¬ guishes between conflicting orientations. Those in school administra¬ tion, particularly those who in some ways link the school