CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

Curriculum Development

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Curriculum Development

Curriculum development is both timeless and context dependent. As a process, curriculum development is a contribution by the curriculum field that has stretched into all aspects of university life and indeed culture generally. Curriculum development is timeless because it deals with how to take knowledge of any kind and connect it with a group of students located in time and space. As long as there exist institutions for the purpose of schooling, the practice of curriculum development, in some form or another, will persist. Although meanings for curriculum development have shifted during the past 90 years, the idea that curriculum development implies the preparation and transmission of knowledge within an institution whose purpose is to educate has remained consistent.

The curriculum field came into existence when the modern techniques of control, measurement, and planning were all the rage in fields across the academic spectrum—including political science, sociology, and the natural sciences (M. Smith, 1994). John Franklin Bobbitt and W. W. Charters were nothing if not creatures of the age in which they lived. They could have rejected the scientism that dominated American culture, but such a choice would have kept them from producing works that impacted American society.

The idea of curriculum as a focused field, therefore, came about at the same time that modern science grew to prominence. Individuals interested in topics such as why to educate, the metaphysical purpose of schooling, or the relationship between moral and intellectual dimensions of curriculum could discuss ultimate ends and ideals, but the figures who were to shape American education had to present their work in the language of science. This meant conducting empirical studies that reported objective results. Curriculum had to follow this larger pattern. During this time, political philosophy took a backseat to empirical political science, the classic moral philosophies of Plato and Aristotle were set aside to make way for moderns like John Locke and Bertrand Russell, and the curriculum field drew upon Bobbitt and Herbert Spencer instead of Aristotle and John Amos Comenius.

In his The Curriculum , published in 1918, Bobbitt does not mention or use the phrase curriculum development. He discusses curriculum making, educational experiences, and occupational efficiency at length, but he does not discuss a practice that he specifically labels curriculum development. We should be careful to note that Bobbitt was a professor of educational administration when he published The Curriculum. He was not a professor of curriculum. Bobbitt was an authority on educational administration whose specialty was making systems more efficient. Curriculum, to Bobbitt, was just another process like textbook ordering and plant management. We also should recognize that Bobbitt's field of educational administration grew out of a combination of political science, economics, and philosophy. As a result, Bobbitt, when he wrote The Curriculum , was part political scientist, part economist, part education expert, and even part philosopher. This genealogy matters for three reasons. First, curriculum and curriculum development have been interdisciplinary endeavors from the beginning. Second, Bobbitt's background demonstrates that ...