The Character of a Curriculum for a "Practical" Curriculum.

Abstract

In this paper I want to discuss some aspects of Joseph Schwab's essay The Practical: A Language for Curriculum. I want to examine exegetically what Schwab is telling us there. I will do this both by exploring the particular argument of this paper in the light of the forms of argument Schwab habitually uses and also by extrapolating from the argument of the essay to the further problem of constructing a practicable curriculum for a "practice" curriculum. This act of extrapolation is, I believe (and I hope I can show), important not only practically but also theoretically. My discussion will suggest, I hope, that many of the current readings of Schwab's thesis underestimate both the significance and the power of both his analysis of and his solutions to the plight of curriculum as a field. At the same time I hope to show some of the issues that will need development before we can say that we have a new and complete paradigm for curriculum at hand.