Division B - Curriculum Studies

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Curriculum studies is interested in the knowledge taught at school. The field reminds us that:

1. The formal purpose of schooling is curricular: to provide all youth access to society's valuable knowledge (Page, 1991, p. 18), and that
2. Decisions about what is taught at schools to whom and how are not neutral or given, but are culturally and politically derived. Consequently, such decisions have a socio-cultural impact on both students and society at large.

There are two broad fields in curriculum studies. One group of scholars is primarily concerned withCurriculum Development. They propose or examine what is or should be taught, how it is or should be taught, and to whom. For example, they might ask questions about which aspects of American history is/should be included in the K-12 curriculum, whether the focus is/should be on coverage or on historical inquiry, and how the curriculum is/should be differentiated by students. Thus, if you are interested in subject matter content, the relationship between pedagogy and subject matter epistemology, or curriculum differentiation, Division B may be your scholarly home.
The second group of curriculum scholars, the Reconceptualists, are concerned with the cultural-sociological-political implications of the curriculum taught. Reconceptualists are not only, or even primarily interested in the official curriculum, as curriculum developers are, but seek to examine the hidden curriculum, the subtext that comes with teaching a specific curriculum a certain way to specific groups of students. Reconceptualists, in other words, are interested in much more than subject matter. They are interested in the messages or ideologies (hidden knowledge) that underlay not only subject matter, but also pedagogy, social interactions, and classroom settings, and educational practices as well as institutional contexts that have long come to be taken for granted. Many reconceptualists ultimately ask the question, who benefits from these configurations, and who loses. Thus, if you are interested in the cultural-sociological-politicalimplications of schooling with respect to social justice, citizenship, or the role education is or should play in society at large, you might want to join.

Dr. Luis Moll, Division B Vice President

Ronald K. Porter Senior Graduate Representative University of California - Berkeley [email protected]		Yoonjung Choi Junior Graduate Representative Teachers College, Columbia [email protected]
Ronald is a doctoral candidate in the Social and Cultural Studies in Education program, with a designated emphasis in Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his B.A. in Political Science from Eckerd College and his M.A. in Education at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include African-American educational thought and critical theories of race, gender and sexuality. His dissertation research traces the intellectual history of African-American educational thought looking specifically at the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, Alain Locke, and James Baldwin.		Yoonjung is a doctoral candidate in social studies education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research interests include social studies curriculum, multicultural education, teaching for global perspectives, and teacher education. She is also working as a consultant for professional development curriculum development at The Korea Society. In her free time, she enjoys drawing, photography, and traveling.

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