With substantially new and revised material, the book includes both historical and contemporary efforts to redefine the public school curriculum. It analyzes both the explicit ideas that are conveyed through the curriculum as well as the social, political, aesthetic, ethical, and moral perspectives and values with which curriculum is connected. In outlining both theoretical and practical aspects of the curriculum, and the social values and purposes with which they are connected, the book raises a host of important questions and dilemmas about the nature and direction of educational policies and practices.

Taking an integrated perspective, The Curriculum outlines both theoretical issues and practical possibilities, in the process raising questions about the nature and direction of educational policies and practices. As it clarifies the connections between social possibility and the concrete realities of classrooms and other educational arenas, this book elucidates the meaning and value of education, and some of the reasons for the continuing debates within the field.