Curriculum history and new agenda for research: A national and international landscape

Abstract

In the Introduction to this special issue, the editors review the field of curriculum history to date and present new ways of investigating the past of the course of study. Relying on the notion that curriculum is comprised of the discursive practices in educational settings that transcend location and time, they discuss research on the social and political forces that shaped school subjects and how researchers rely on textbooks as primary sources. After an overview of each essay, the editors reveal that new directions in curriculum history are focusing on transnational influences and curriculum as enacted outside of schools in such places as voluntary organizations and prisons.

Keywords

• Curriculum
• curriculum history
• discursive practices
• social forces