When it seems that educators disagree over curriculum, it may be that they disagree over the philosophical differences regarding the end(s) of education.

I. Perennialism - concerned with opening students minds to rational thought and to the “truths” that can be found in the works of Aristotle, Plato, Shakespeare, etc.  The search for excellence and mental discipline means that teaching becomes a sorting out process, identifying, and fostering the best and the brightest.  Teacher would be exploring ideas and engaging students in Socratic dialogue - forcing them to question their underlying assumptions

    A. Robert Hutchins (The Higher Learning in America, 1936) curriculum should consist of the “permanent studies”: rules
        of grammar, reading, rhetoric and logic, mathematics, “great literature” (of the west)

        1. Tanner & Tanner  (Curriculum Development:Theory into Practice, 1975) fails to  reorganize the modern scientific
            studies and changing state of knowledge - assumes that  ‘permanent studies’ are valid for all time - that knowledge is
            truth & that truth is everywhere (and everytime) the same, hence education should be everywhere the same (Hutchins); rejects
            any interest in the needs of the learner

    B. Mortimer Adler (The Paideia Proposal, 1982) advocates physical education and manual arts but the core of the
        curriculum is for fundamental knowledge in history, literature, languages, etc. with an emphasis on the basics skills:
        reading, writing, computation; goal of the curriculum is to develop students who can recognize “excellence” in thinking
        and strive toward that excellence in their own thinking

        1. William Stanley (Curriculum for Utopia, 1992) calls Adler a neoconservative who advocates “superbasics” & “ultraliteracy” in
            the guise of egalitarianism: beyond 3 basics to include communication skills, computer literacy, “higher-level” problem solving,
            foreign language but education is still a “sorting machine”; neoconservative rhetoric represents a shift from education for
            competent citizenship to a focus on traditional (dominant) academic technical skills

II. Essentialism - schools exist to see that certain selected elements of culture are passed on to succeeding generations.  Focus on subject and not student.  Reading, writing, and mathematics (big 3) must be mastered before other subjects - fine and physical arts are low priorities.  Standardized textbooks are the normal reference with lecture/practice/recitation the preferred instructional methods; knowledge is something to be acquired and stored for future use; the teacher is transmitter and students are passive recipients; standardized tests measure whether everyone is meeting minimum expectations

    A. Patrick Slattery (Curriculum Development in the Postmodern Era, 1995) believes that perennialists and essentialists are the same
        people - at the core of both is the belief in the perennial truths of Platonic idealism or scientific realism: examples are William
        Bennett, E.D. Hirsch, Allen Bloom, Diane Ravitch; one thing that traditional curriculum development programs have in common is
        a commitment to organized goals, measurable objectives, and mastery evaluation

    B.Tanner & Tanner - difference is that essentialists recognizes that place of modern lab science in the curriculum along with the
        big 3; the modern social sciences, vocational education, and other non-academic studies are the lowest priorities

    C. Derrida - deconstruction shows how a discursive system functions including what it excludes or denies; Foucault’s “archaeology of
        silence”; Elliot Eisner’s “null curriculum” (1979) - kids learn from what’s not taught in schools, ex. Blacks are left out, therefore...;
        also known as the hidden, or unintended curriculum

III. Progressivism - schools should focus on developing the unique talents, capabilities, and interests of each child; emphasis on the child rather than on society (belief that society was good already), or subject matter; living in a democracy demands social and academic knowledge and skill; curriculum derives from the needs and interests of the students (like democratic government should operate based on the needs and desires of the populace); learning is an end in itself; teacher is merely a resource; emphasis on assimilation

    A. Dewey’s “educative experience” - education is a life-long process, not an end

        1. Lawrence Cremin (Popular Education and Its Discontents, 1989) - progressivist desire to use schools to improve the lives of
            individuals; Dewey and others believed that culture could be democratized without being vulgarized - [translation is that schools
            would change them, not vice-versa = assimilation]

        2. Slattery (1995) - [progressive education is also a “sorting machine”] Dewey himself  argued that the “central problem of an
            education based on experience is to select the kind of present experiences that live fruitfully and creatively in subsequent
            experience”

    B. Peter Hlebowitsch (Radical Curriculum Theory Revisited, 1993) - greatly influenced by Dewey and Ralph Tyler (curriculum is a
        thing)

IV. Social Reconstructionism - education changes society; schools should be agents of social change leading to a new and more valuable social order; students are encouraged to question traditions and traditional values, and even question the value of academic content; society becomes the subject and the function of the student is to effect social change through skills and attitudes learned in a school setting; curriculum can’t be separated from current events; focus of students is outside the school setting rather than inside

    A. Henry Giroux (Theory and Resistance in Education, 1983): students must resist the dominant forces of society - teachers and
        students must act as if they were living in a democratic society

    B. Paulo Freire (Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1970): social education = “conscientization”; students must disrupt accomodation by the
        dominant society

V. Existentialism - of the five philosophies it is the one most concerned with developing the individual student - most important human activity is the search for meaning in one’s own existence in an irrational world; for the teacher, students are subjects, not objects, and should never be used to fulfill a teacher’s, school’s, or even society’s needs

    A. Jean-Paul Sartre - said to reclaim our intuition by wrenching it from fallacies that parade as society’s doctrines, moralities, and
        institutions

    B. Madeleine Grumet - phenomenology helps us to see the ordinary as strange and in need of some explanation - the scrutiny of what
        is ordinary requires a critical approach to the social and political environment (“ordinary” is a social concept)

    C. Makes us see life in terms of a “whole” - as a “being” - instead of disjointed and ever changing - “search” for meaning suggests
        that there is some to “find” - even “individual meaning” resonates with the idea of “conclusion”

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PLEASE NOTE: EXAMINING PHILOSOPHIES IS A COMPLICATED ENDEAVOR.  THE INFORMATION PRESENTED ABOVE IS NOT EXHAUSTIVE, IT'S PURPOSE IS AS AN OVERVIEW OF VARIOUS PHILOSOPHIES OF EDUCATION.
 
 

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