Posted: May 19th, 2015

Don’t Know Much About History

Don’t Know Much About History

Kliebard identifies four interest groups in the struggle to control or modify the subject organization of the American curriculum (see the preface to the 3rd edition, p. x). He also confesses to confusion as to ?how to treat the towering figure of John Dewey? (see the preface to the 1st edition, p. xix) in that struggle. After you read the Kliebard text in its entirety, you must answer the “performance” question of how to illustrate your new knowledge about American curriculum history. In that illustration, you MUST

identify the four interest groups,
provide insight into the organization of the curriculum sought by the groups,
consider the socio-political and economic presses or factors that influenced the organization sought, and
compare and contrast Dewey?s notions about the organization of the curriculum with each of the interest groups. Please consult the additional information about Dewey (PDF file in week one) as needed to support your comparison and contrast.
You might consider:

1. a narrative of a dinner party with particular individuals invited from different periods with the topic of conversation about American curriculum;
2. a play about the struggles that the American curriculum has been through;
3. an epic poem that deals with the continuing traditional-progressive tensions throughout American curricular history; or
4. a “classic” comic book that illustrates the history of the American curriculum.