This document discusses various conceptions of curriculum. It begins by defining curriculum as the learning planned and directed by the school to attain educational goals. It then discusses curriculum more broadly as the learning experiences of students, including goals, plans, and their implementation. The document considers different levels of curriculum from the collection of school subjects to individual lesson plans. It also discusses currere as the lived experience of education. In exploring different meanings of curriculum, it references its etymological roots and metaphors used to describe it like a circus or road trip. It examines curriculum theory, critiques of reconceptualist theory, and methods of curriculum inquiry like deconstruction, philosophical analysis, and currere.

2. What is curriculum?
The most common answer to this
question:
The Syllabus as a set of
educational prescriptions
[ Usually a set of official Aims,
Knowledge, Skills, & Values ]
 All of the learning planned and
directed by the school to attain its
educational goals.1
 Refers to the learning experience of
students, as expressed or anticipated
in goals and objectives, plans and
designs, and their implementation.2
1. Tyler, R. W. (1949). Basic principles of curriculum and instruction. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Or see: Tyler, R. W.
(2004). Basic principles of curriculum and instruction. In D. J. Flinders & S. J. Thornton (Eds.), The curriculum studies reader (pp. 51-
60). New York: Routledge.
2. Skilbeck, M. (1984). School based curriculum development. London: Harper & Row Ltd.

3. So what is the curriculum?
 the collection of all school subjects?
 the Syllabus for a specific school subject or Key
Learning Area?
 a Scope and sequence that maps how the syllabus The Explicit,
prescriptions will be met in an individual school? Planned, or
Official
 a Unit of Work that outlines the teaching and learning Curriculum
strategies and goals for a specific set of syllabus topics?
 Lesson Plans for individual lessons that work towards
the achievement of unit goals?

4. “Currere”
the lived experience of education?
 What the teacher actually
does to enact the lesson
plan during a specific class
or period?
 What students actually
experience in the
classroom during a specific
lesson . . . or even over the
Image from Paramount Picture‘s School of Rock course of their entire
schooling?
Pinar, W. F. (1975). Currere: Towards reconceptualization. In W. F. Pinar (Ed.), Curriculum theorizing: The reconceptualists. Berkeley, CA:
McCutchan.

5. Tracking Meanings of Curriculum
[Curriculum as ‘the course’]
Etymology
Course of the Circus Maximus
Race Track, Running Race
Kleibard‟s Metaphors
Production, Growth, Travel
Does the end
Circus Maximus
have to be
known in
advance?
(Re-Tooling the
Metaphor)
Circus, Road Trip,
Map, Rhizome, or
Lines of Flight? 3-Ringed Circus Piccadilly Circus
Kliebard, H. M. (1975). Metaphorical roots of curriculum design. In W. Pinar (Ed.), Curriculum theorizing: The reconceptualists (pp. 84-85).
Berkley, CA: McCutchan Publishing Corporation.

6. What is curriculum theory?
A field of study? Curriculum theory is a distinctive field of study,
with a unique history, a complex present, an
uncertain future. (Pinar, 2004, p. 2)
A method of Curriculum theorizing is not singular but . . .
scholarly inquiry? multiple, fractured and contested. (Wright, 2000)
A theory or theories? Curriculum discourse should be marked by
richness, diversity, discordant voices, fecundity,
multiple rationalities, and theories, and should
be touched by humanity and practicality in a
hundred thousand contexts. (Morrison, 2004, p.
487)
Pinar, W. F. (2004). What is curriculum theory? Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Wright, H. K. (2000). Nailing jell-o to the wall: Pinpointing aspects of state-of-the-art curriculum theorizing. Educational Researcher, 29(5), 4-
13.
Morrison, K. R. B. (2004). The poverty of curriculum theory: A critique of Wraga and Hlebowitsh. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 36(4), 487-
494.

7. What is the function of curriculum?
Lessons from the Deakin School
 The double problem1 of the relationship between:
 theory and practice
[curriculum provides a set of representations of a ‘world
outside’]
 education and society
[curriculum operates as a site of cultural reproduction]
 Re-examing the work of Ulf Lundgren and the Deakin
School, Green2 refers to this as the unresolved problem
of representation and reproduction.
1. Kemmis, S., & Fitzclarence, L. (1986). Curriculum theorizing: Beyond reproduction theory. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University.
2. Green, B. (2010). Rethinking the representation problem in curriculum inquiry. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 42(4), 451-469.

8. The Key Curriculum Question/s
 Anglo-American Curriculum Tradition:
What knowledge is of most worth?*
[What should be taught?]
 European Bildung-Influenced Didaktik Tradition:
What will the student become?
[What should the student become?]
* Whose knowledge is being taught?
Gundem, B. B., & Hopmann, S. (Eds.). (2002). Didaktik and/or curriculum: An international dialogue. New York: Peter Lang.

9. North America Curriculum Field
Historical Moment State of the Field
1918-1969 The field‘s inauguration and
paradigmatic stabilization as ‗curriculum
Curriculum Development
development‘
1980-Present The field‘s reconceptualization from
The Reconceptualization
curriculum development to curriculum
studies, and interdisciplinary academic
1990-Present field paradigmatically organized around
(Post)Reconceptualis
t Theory
‗understanding curriculum‘
• Queer Theory
• Postcolonial
•
Theory
Postmodernism 2000-Present The field‘s internationalization.
Internationalization
An Australian Story: Green, B. (2003). Curriculum inquiry in Australia: Toward a local genealogy of the curriculum field. In W. F. Pinar (Ed.),
Handbook of international curriculum research (pp. 123-141). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

10. Before The Reconceptualization:
The Tyler Rationale (1949)
 What educational purposes
should the school seek to
attain?
 How can learning experiences
be selected which are likely to
be useful in attaining these
objectives?
Curriculum is all of
 How can learning experiences the learning planned
be organized for effective and directed by the
instruction? school to attain its
educational goals.
 How can the effectiveness of
learning experiences be
evaluated?

11. After The Reconceptualization:
Understanding Curriculum as
Text Bernadette Baker
Tom Popkewitz
Herbert Kleibard
Ivor Goodson
Elliot Eisner
Elizabeth Vallance
William A. Reid Janet Miller
Herbert Kleibard Madeline R. Grumet
Michael Apple William F. Pinar
Henry Giroux Cameron McCarthy
William F. Pinar
Cleo Cherryholmes
Dwayne Huebner Madeline R. Grumet
Peter Taubman
Patrick Slattery William F. Pinar
Jacques Daignault
Ivor Goodson

12. The bible of
Reconceptualist Curriculum Theory
Pinar, W. F., Reynolds, W. M., Slattery, P., & Taubman, P. M. (1995). Understanding curriculum. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

13. Curriculum as cartography?
Parkes Comment:
The curriculum
imagination is
dominated by maps
and visions. Here is
an explicit map, but
the curricularist is
always offering a
vision of the course,
whether they diagram
it or not.
Example: The International Baccalaureate Curriculum Map

14. Mapping the Field
Where do your interests lie? Who do you read?
 DeMarrais and LeCompte (1995) have suggested that
curriculum scholars are inevitably:
Curriculum Developers
Tyler/Bobbit/Tanner
1. social transmissionists concerned with the efficacy of curriculum as
‗knowledge transfer‘ from one generation to the next;
The Reconceptualists
Pinar/Grumet/Miller
2. interpretativists concerned with „understanding‟ curriculum, its
generation, evolution, operation and effects; curriculum as
“lived experience”;
Critical Pedagogues
Giroux/McLaren
3. social reconstructionists concerned to use curriculum as a vehicle of
liberation and emancipation, societal transformation, individual
empowerment, and/or cultural critique.

15. Finding Your Location in the Field
Where do we place Michael Apple?
The Reconceptualists
Pinar/Grumet/Miller
Reconceptualist
Curriculum
Theory
Sociology of Critical
Knowledge Pedagogy
Critical Critical & Feminist
Reproductionists? Pedagogues
Young/Bernstein/Bordieu Giroux/McLaren/Luke/Lather

16. What Does Reconceptualist
Theory Look Like?
 Historical Inquiry
 Philosophical Inquiry  Hermeneutics
 Literary Theory
Slattery, P. (2002). Hermeneutics, subjectivity, and
aesthetics: Internationalizing the interpretive
process in curriculum research. In W. F. Pinar
(Ed.), The handbook of international curriculum
research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Gough, N. (1998). Reflections and diffractions:
Functions of fiction in curriculum inquiry. In W. F.
Pinar (Ed.), Curriculum: Toward new identities
(pp. 94-127). New York: Garland.

17. A Genealogy of Hermeneutics

18. The Hermeneutic Circle
and the Fusion of Horizons
Reading the part in relation to the
whole
Reading the text in relation to its context
Recognizing how this text is also part of
our context and how our reading is shaped
by our own prejudices and biases

19. Currere and Curriculum as
Autobiographical Text
 The method of currere reconceptualized curriculum
from course objectives to complicated conversation
with oneself (as a 'private' intellectual), an ongoing
project of self-understanding in which one becomes
mobilized for engaged pedagogical action—as a
private-and-public intellectual – with others in the
social reconstruction of the public sphere. (Pinar,
2004)
Pinar, W. F. (2004). What is curriculum theory? Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

20. The Method of Currere
 The Regressive Step involves returning to the past to remember particular educational or life
experiences and they continue to cast their shadow or leave their traces on our attitudes and
beliefs in the present (particularly how they shape our understanding of education, or learning, or
teaching, etc.). Here we may connect our personal experiences into the larger socio-historical
network of which they are a part.
 The Progressive Step invites the researcher to think about where they are headed in the future;
what they expect from the future; what they would like to see happen in the future; where things
in their life seem to be heading.
 The Analytic Step involves analyzing the here and now (independent of but recognising the
influence of the past and future anticipations) and is designed to create a subjective space of
freedom from the present. You may see the moment of right here and now as the historical
moment in which we live.
 The Synthetic Step is the final move which involves analyzing the present in light of the
knowledge and understanding gained from steps 1, 2, and 3. Many educators may use the first
three steps to visualize and analyze their journey of becoming an educator or researcher, and the
method is designed to reduce the role distance one has between themselves as teacher, learner
or researcher, and what they are teaching, learning, or researching.
Pinar, W. (1994). The method of currere. In W. Pinar (Ed.), Autobiography, Politics and Sexuality: Essays in Curriculum Theory 1972-1992
(pp. 19-27). New York: Peter Lang.

21. ‗Critical Moments‘
Writing a Curriculum History
 Emergence – What were the Conditions of
Possibility? Context? and Conditions?
 Representation – What is Said? Unsaid? and
Unsayable?
 Reception – How has this discourse been:
Received? Embraced? Resisted? Appropriated?
Transformed?
 Reconceptualisation – How could things be
This is my own contribution to understanding how a curriculum history – that is, tracking the emergence, meaning and reception of an
educational idea otherwise? vision – might be written up. It represents the order of chapters, not the order of the process,
or a particular curriculum
necessarily! If you want to cite, then cite as: Parkes, R. J. (2012). (Post)Reconceptualist Curriculum Theorizing. A workshop presented at the
AARE Utility of Theories Workshop, University of Queensland, St Lucia, 18-20 May.

22. Appropriating Philosophical
Methods for Curriculum Inquiry
Analysing a term or concept, showing its multiple uses and meanings, for the primary purpose of clarification.
Critiquing a term or concept, identifying internal contradictions or ambiguities in uses of the term.
Exposing the hidden assumptions underlying a particular view or broader school of thought.
Reviewing a specific argument offered elsewhere.
Questioning a particular educational practice or policy.
Proposing the ends or purposes education should achieve, either in terms of benefits to the person, to the society, or
both.
Speculating about alternative systems or practices of education, whether utopian or programmatic, that contrast with
and challenge conventional understandings and practices.
Imagining through a thought experiment a situation, to determine which features are relevant to changing its pertinent
character.
Interpreting trough a close reading of a philosophical or literary text with an eye more towards explication and
understanding of its complex meanings than analysis or critique.
Synthesising disparate research from philosophy itself or other fields (ie. politics, psychology, sociology, etc.) to find
meanings and implications for educational theory and practice.
Green, J. L., Camilli, G., & Elmore, P. B. (Eds.). (2006). Handbook of complementary methods in education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates. – See Nicholas Burbules chapter on Philosophical Inquiry.

23. Deconstruction as Method?
Deconstruction is not a method, as such, but a way of challenging
received ways of interpreting texts (from Derrida)
Duality search Explore binaries and bipolar terms used in a text. Mention of one term (smart) implies its opposite
(dumb).
Reinterpret the hierarchy. Reverse any logical hierarchy constructed by the text.
Rebel voices What voices are not being given expression? Which voices are given central importance and
which are marginalised?
Other side of the story Reverse the story so that the other side is told.
Deny the plot Change the mode of emplotment (tragic to romantic, comedic to ironic, etc.)
Find the exception Break the text‘s self-imposed rules, making them seem absurd.
Trace what is between the lines Articulate what is implied or not said.
Resituate Re-author the text. Reveal how our ways of reading are conditioned.
Boje, D. M. (2001). Narrative methods for organizational and communication research. London: SAGE Publications.

24. The Critique of
Reconceptualist Theory
Pragmatic Critique of Reconceptualist Reconceptualist Defense
Theory
 Morrison, K. R. B. (2004). The poverty
 Wraga, W. G., & Hlebowitsh, P. S. of curriculum theory: A critique of
(2003). Towards a renaissance in Wraga and Hlebowitsh. Journal of
curriculum theory and development in Curriculum Studies, 36(4), 487-494.
the USA. Journal of Curriculum Studies,
35(4), 425-437.  Westbury, I. (2005). Reconsidering
Schwab's "Practicals": A Response to
 Hlebowitsh, P. S. (1999). The burdens of Peter Hlebowitsh's "Generational
the new curricularist. Curriculum Inquiry, Ideas in Curriculum: A Historical
29(3), 343-354. Triangulation". Curriculum Inquiry,
35(1), 89-101.
 Wraga, W. G. (1999). "Extracting sun-
beams out of cucumbers": The retreat  Wright, H. K. (2005). Does Hlebowitsh
from practice in reconceptualized Improve on Curriculum History?
curriculum studies. Educational Reading a Rereading for Its Political
Researcher, 28(1), 4-13. Purpose and Implications. Curriculum
Inquiry, 35(1), 103-117.

26. Vertical and Horizontal
Knowledge Structures
Horizontal Knowledge Vertical Knowledge Structures
Structures
 Either coherent, explicit,
 Everyday “common-sense” and systematically
knowledge, that is typically principled structure,
oral, local, context hierarchically organised, as
dependent and specific, in the sciences.
tacit, multi-layered, and
contradictory across but  Or a series of specialised
not within contexts. languages with specialised
modes of interrogation and
 Culturally specified specialised criteria for the
knowledges and practices. production and circulation
of texts, as in the social
sciences and humanities.
Bernstein, B. (1999). Vertical and horizontal discourse: An essay. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20(2), 157-173. Note, that
Vygotsky made a very similar distinction in the 1930s, when he referred to ―everyday‖ and ―scientific‖ knowledge, and based a good deal of
his psychology on the pedagogical implications of such a distinction. See: Vygotsky, L. S. (1934/1997). Thinking and speech (N. Minick,
Trans.). In R. W. Rieber & A. S. Carton (Eds.), The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky (Vol. 1: Problems of general psychology, pp. 39-288).
New York: Plenum Press.

27. Curriculum as Induction
into Powerful Knowledge
Young (2007) argues that the curriculum‘s job is to induct students into ―powerful knowledge‖16 (not
just ―knowledge of the powerful‖). Key features of ―powerful knowledge‖:
 it provides reliable and in a broad sense provides ‗testable‘ explanations or ways of thinking;
 it is the basis for suggesting realistic alternatives;
 it enables those who acquire it to see beyond their everyday experience;
 it is conceptual as well as based on evidence and experience;
 it is always open to challenge;
 it is acquired in specialist educational institutions, staffed by specialists;
 it is organised into domains with boundaries that are not arbitrary and these domains are
associated with specialist communities such as subject and professional associations, and in
that way is typically discipline-based.
Young, M. (2007). Bringing knowledge back in: From social constructivism to social realism in the sociology of education. London:
Routledge.

29. (Post)Reconceptualist
Curriculum Theory?
Pacheco, J. A. (2012). Curriculum studies: What is the field today? Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum
Studies, 8(1). Page numbers not provided by the online journal for some reason!

30. (Post)Reconceptualist
Curriculum Theory?
Morris, M. (2005). Back up group: Here comes the (post)reconceptualization. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 21(4).

31. What is the object of
(post)reconceptualist curriculum
inquiry?
 Curriculum text [ The archive ]
 Curriculum as text [ Lived experience read as text ]
 Curriculum as discourse [ Systems of rationality ]
 Curriculum discourse [ ‗Messages‘ that are
circulated ]
This is my own contribution to understanding how curriculum can be read as text and discourse. If you want to cite, then cite as: Parkes, R. J.
(2012). (Post)Reconceptualist Curriculum Theorizing. A workshop presented at the AARE Utility of Theory(ies), University of Queensland, St
Lucia, 18-20 May.

32. What is poststructuralism?
 A school of thought?
 A diverse array of philosophers informing poststructuralist
research (Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, Barthes, Butler, and
others)
 Key names amongst poststructuralist scholars who have
addressed curriculum or pedagogic concerns (Lather,
Cherryholmes, Davies, McWilliam, Lee, Green, Peters, Gough,
Taubman, among many others)
 Has been developing and mutating internationally for the last
25 years
Petersen, E. B. (2011). Poststructural theory for empirical research. A workshop presented at the AARE Utility of Theory(ies) Workshop, The
University of Newcastle, 13-15 May.

33. Can Poststructuralism be
defined?
 Post-Foundationalism – a rejection that there is any absolute foundation or
metaphysical platform outside of history or discourse from which to cast authoritative
statements.
 Post-Universalism - a distrust of ‗totalizing discourses‘ that cocoon diverse
phenomena inside an all-encompassing grand explanatory narrative; and/or that
present themselves as a singular truth ignoring their own historicity.
 Post-Realism – a rejection of representations that claim to unproblematically mirror
a real world outside of the systems of representation we use to understand it.
 Post-Essentialism – a rejection of the idea that there is, or can ever be, a universal
human subject that is divorced from history, culture and society.
 Post-Relativism - a rejection of the idea that respect for difference and diversity
means that all viewpoints are equally valid. The arbiter and the object of their gaze
are always situated.
Parkes, R. J., Gore, J. M., & Elsworth, W. A. (2010). After poststructuralism: Rethinking the discourse of social justice pedagogy. In T.
Chapman & N. Hobbel (Eds.), Social justice pedagogy across the curriculum: The Practice of freedom (pp. 164-183). New York: Routledge.

34. What is a discourse?
 Statements with constitutive effects.
 Statements that constitute, construct, incite, and induce, rather than simply document and
describe, reality.
 Discourse constitutes the object of which it speaks. (Foucault, 1972)
 Foucault (1969/1972) used to discourse to mean:
 the general domain of all statements
 an individualizable group of statements
 a regulated practice that accounts for a number of statements. (p. 80)
 Discourse is more than language: Bodies of knowledge, practices of meaning-making,
actions, feelings, which produce ‘regimes of truth’.
 Authoritative statements . . . what experts say when they are speaking as experts.
(Dreyfus & Rabinow, 1982)
Dreyfus, H. L., & Rabinow, P. (1982). Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics. Brighton, Sussex: The Harvester Press.
Foucault, M. (1969/1972). The archaeology of knowledge. London: Routledge.

35. Curriculum as Discourse
 Curriculum as an archive of statements and practices that are
historically located within systems of ideas that inscribe
particular forms of rationality. (Parkes, 2011)
 According to Popkewitz (2001), ―Curricula are historically formed
within systems of ideas that inscribe styles of reasoning, standards,
and conceptual distinctions in school practices and its subjects‖ (p.
151).
 Curriculum must therefore be understood as ―a practice of
governing and an effect of power‖ (p. 151), that is implicated in the
constitution of particular kinds of rationalities and subjectivities by
what it includes and neglects.
Parkes, R. J. (2011). Interrupting history: Rethinking history curriculum after 'the end of history'. New York: Peter Lang.
Popkewitz, T. S. (1997). The production of reason and power: curriculum history and intellectual traditions. Journal of Curriculum Studies,
29(2), 131-164.

36. Curriculum Discourses
 Statements about:
 forms of knowledge and ways of knowing – the ‗nature‘
of what is to be taught and how it is learnt
(epistemology);
 pedagogical decision-making processes and
educational realities – what can be taught and learnt
within the limits of the educational situation (ontology);
and
 valued skills, concepts, and experiences – what is
Parkes, R. J. (2011). currently being, history curriculum after 'thetaught (axiology).
Interrupting history: Rethinking or should be end of history'. New York: Peter Lang. (This is Macdonald
with a Parkes poststructuralist spin. Ie. Recasting the above commitments as discourses).
Macdonald, J. B. (1975). Curriculum theory. In W. Pinar (Ed.), Curriculum theorizing: The reconceptualists (pp. 5-13). Berkley, CA:
McCutchan Publishing Corporation.

37. The Three Curricula that
all Schools Teach
To understand curriculum we must explore―what is valued and given
priority and what is devalued and excluded‖ (p. 297).1
Explicit Implicit / Hidden Null
The official written syllabi, The learning of attitudes, What is not included in the
programmes, lesson plans, norms, beliefs, values and curriculum and consequently
and policies. assumptions often expressed those ideas and skills that
as/by rules, rituals and are withheld from students
regulations… common-sense that they might otherwise
knowledge… rarely have used.3
questioned or articulated.2
Whose interests are being served by the explicit, implicit, and null curriculum?
1. Cherryholmes, C. H. (1987). A social project for curriculum: Post-structural perspectives. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 19(4), 295-316.
2. Seddon, T. (1983). The hidden curriculum: An overview. Curriculum Perspectives, 3(1), 1-6.
3. Eisner, E. W. (1979). The educational imagination: on the design and evaluation of school programs. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.
Inc.

38. Constructions of Curriculum
[or Different answers to the double problem of curriculum]
Eisner‟s Model1 Schiro‟s Model2
academic rationalism concerned with ―enabling Academic Idealist Curriculum
the young to acquire the tools to participate in
the Western cultural tradition.‖ (p. 12)
the development of cognitive processes
concerned with ―the refinement of intellectual
Techno-Rationalist Curriculum
operations.‖ (p. 5)
technology concerned with ―finding efficient
means to a set of predefined, unproblematic
ends.‖ (p. 7)
self-actualization concerned with education ―as Learner-Centred Curriculum
an enabling process.‖ (p. 9)
social reconstruction concerned with ―social Social Reconstructionist Curriculum
reform and responsibility to the future of society.‖
(p. 10)
1. Eisner, E. W., & Vallance, E. (Eds.). (1974). Conflicting conceptions of curriculum. Berkley, CA: McCutchan Publishing Corporation.
2. Schiro, M. S. (2008). Curriculum theory: Conflicting visions and enduring concerns. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.

39. A Study of Curriculum
Discourse
How do teachers respond to and negotiate these multiple
and conflicting curriculum ideologies?
Schiro (2008) Academic Idealist
 Dualistic
 Hierarchical
Social
Techno-Rational
Reconstructionist
 Relativistic
 Contextual
Learner Centred

40. Conflicting Curriculum
Discourses
Academic Idealist
Subject or Discipline Focused
Social
Techno-Rational
Effective Reproduction Reconstructionist
Focused Transformation Focused
Learner Centred
Student focused

41. Sitting With Discursive Tensions?
(Parkes’ spin on Schiro’s schema)
 Dualistic – Mine is right and yours is wrong
 Hierarchical – Mine is better than yours
 Relativistic – They’re all good
 Contextual – Each one is good for a different situation

42. Genealogical Curriculum Inquiry
 Contemporary problem (or problematisation of taken for granted)
 Identifying contemporary discourses and their variety of
interpretations (systematic hermeneutic analysis)
 Tracking the emergence and reception of curriculum discourses
(historicisation)
 Exploring how things might have been otherwise (philosophising)
 Proposing alternatives (theorizing)
This is my own contribution to understanding how a genealogical curriculum inquiry project might be carried out or written up. If you want to
cite, then cite as: Parkes, R. J. (2012). (Post)Reconceptualist Curriculum Theorizing. A workshop presented at the AARE Utility of Theory(ies),
University of Queensland, St Lucia, 18-20 May.

43. The Process of Curriculum
Inquiry
Historicization & Philosophizing
Projects
A history of
curriculum &
pedagogic
ideas
Reveals that we And that there is
have thought the possibility of
differently at thinking
different times differently now!
Denaturalization Critical Reconstruction
Projects Projects
My version of: Baker, B., & Heyning, K. E. (2004). Introduction: Dangerous coagulations? Research, education, and a traveling Foucault. In B.
Baker & K. E. Heyning (Eds.), Dangerous coagulations? The uses of Foucault in the study of education (pp. 1-79). New York: Peter Lang.

44. Curriculum Discourse in the
Contemporary University
What is the effect of the presence of both academic
rationalist and student-centred curriculum discourses in
contemporary higher education?
Academic Developmental View
Student Consumer View
Parkes, R. J., & Petersen, E. B. (2010). The collision of vertical and horizontal curriculum discourses in contemporary higher education. Paper
presented at the ‗Making a difference: Celebrating 40 years of educational research‘ the annual conference of the Australian Association for
Research in Education, 28 November - 2 December.

45. What does ‗good‘
curriculum theory look
like?
 Methodological and Epistemological fidelity?
 Argumentative alignment (realism and structuralism
often sneaks in)?
 Is it interesting? Does it ‘disrupt the taken for granted’,
does it enable ‘lines of flight’
Petersen, E. B. (2011). Poststructural theory for empirical research. A workshop presented at the AARE Utility of Theory(ies) Workshop, The
University of Newcastle, 13-15 May.

46. Recent Curriculum Reforms through
the Lens of Curriculum Theory
 What type of curriculum discourse  What are the dominant curriculum
underpins Queensland‘s New Basics discourses circulating in contemporary
and Rich Tasks? Australia?
 What type of curriculum discourse  Whose interests do these discourses serve?
underpins the structures of the new
Australian Curriculum?  If other discourses were dominant, what
might the construction of contemporary
curriculum look like?
 What type of curriculum discourse
underpins NAPLAN and other forms of
national testing?
 What type of curriculum discourse
underpins the NSW Quality Teaching
model?
 What type of curriculum discourse
underpins the Early Years Learning
Framework?

48. Schwab‘s
Commonplaces
 Subject Matter – Consideration of the scholarly
materials and the discipline from which they come
 Learners – Consideration of the capacities and
experience of the students, particularly what is likely to
come easy to them and what will be difficult.
 Teachers – Consideration of teacher dispositions and
ways of teaching.
 The Milieu – Consideration of the family, community,
culture, and nation in which the learning will take place.
 Curriculum Specialist – Who has the task of
considering and ensuring balance between the various
commonplaces.
Schwab, J. (1969). The practical: A language for curriculum. School Review, 78(1), 1-23.
Schwab, J. (1973). The practical 3: Translation into curriculum. The School Review, 81(4), 501-522.

49. Key Postcolonial Concepts
 Authenticity  Orientalism
 Diaspora  Interpellation
 Desire  Whiteness
 Ambivalence  Decolonization
 Hybridity
Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., & Tiffin, H. (2000). Post-colonial studies (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.

50. A Heuristic? Four Phases of
Postcolonial Resistance
 Interpellation
 Rejection
 Interjection
 Interpolation
Ashcroft, B. (2001). Post-Colonial transformation. London: Routledge.
Ashcroft‘s concept applied as a heuristic in a curriculum inquiry project: Parkes, R. J. (2007). Reading History curriculum as postcolonial text:
Towards a curricular response to the history wars in Australia and beyond. Curriculum Inquiry, 37(4), 383-400.

51. Interrupting History: A Critical-Reconceptualisation of History Curriculum after ‘the End of
History’
Systematic Analysis: Extracts all the uses of the relevant term
from the corpus (including Hermeneutic analysis).
Deconstruction: Bringing the divergent perspectives into
dialogue with each other (a form of radical hermeneutics).
Historical Inquiry: Case study of an attempt to implement
selected principles.
Curriculum Reconceptualisation: Using poststructural theory
to rethink the problem.
See: Parkes, R. J. (2011). Interrupting history: Rethinking history curriculum after 'the end of history'. New York: Peter Lang.

52. Southern Theory
 General theory – ―theorising that tries to formulate a
broad vision of the social, and offer concepts that
apply beyond a particular society, place or time‖
(p28).
 Tends to be produced in the metropole, hence he
labels it ―northern theory‖.
 Connell‘s (2007) challenge to social theorists: ―doing
theory in a globally inclusive way‖ (p 48).
Connell, R. (2007). Southern theory: The global dynamics of knowledge in social science. Crows Nest, NSW: Allyn & Unwin.

53. Is Reconceptualist Theory Northern
or Metropolitan by virtue of its locale?
 Connell critiques general theory on the basis that it
ignores time, is ―date-free‖ and ―continuous‖.
 Texts of general theory include exotic items from the
non-metropolitan world, but they do not introduce
ideas from the periphery (p. 64).
 Grand erasure of the south.
Connell, R. (2007). Southern theory: The global dynamics of knowledge in social science. Crows Nest, NSW: Allyn & Unwin.

54. Can we have Southern
Reconceptualist Curriculum Theory?
 Or how a simple grammatical trick can make a
significant difference!
 If ―The Reconceptualisation‖ of curriculum theory
(Pinar, Reynolds, Slattery and Taubman, 2004),
occurred in a specific time and place in the United
States of America (1970-1979), can we really have
Southern Reconceptualist Theory?
Pinar, W. F., Reynolds, W. M., Slattery, P., & Taubman, P. M. (1995). Understanding curriculum. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Parkes, R. J. (2008). The postcolonial as a (new) commonplace of Australian curriculum inquiry? Paper presented at the Paper presented at
the annual conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE), Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, 30
November - 4 December.

55. Southern Reconceptualist
Curriculum Theory?
 Intellectuals in the periphery cannot universalise a
locally generated perspective because its specificity
is immediately obvious (Connell, 2007, p44).
 The first question that gets asked is ‗how far is this
relevant to other situations?‘ (Connell, 2007, p44).
Connell, R. (2007). Southern theory: The global dynamics of knowledge in social science. Crows Nest, NSW: Allyn & Unwin.

56. Knowing one‘s place
in the curriculum field
 We experience being ―disciplined‖ through the peer review
process. To publish A* articles we must inevitably write in a way
that is intelligible to scholars from the metropole. . . And we
must participate in ―northern‖ debates in order to register in the
international field. (Where the ―international‖ audience is North
American and British… not Fijian or Bhutanese… the majority
of Education journals are published out of USA and UK).
 Chakrabarty (1997) has asserted the impossibility of writing a
‗history‘ of India.
 The particular predicament of all settler colony writers is that
they work in a language that appears to be authentically their
own, and yet is not quite. . . (Kroestch, 1974).
 Is it possible to write Australian curriculum theory? And
Australian Reconceptualist curriculum theory in particular?
Parkes, R. J. (2008). The postcolonial as a (new) commonplace of Australian curriculum inquiry? Paper presented at the Paper presented at
the annual conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE), Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, 30
November - 4 December.

57. Curriculum Inquiry as a
Hermeneutic Endeavour
 We inevitability read and write from somewhere.
 To get beyond Manichaeism (or north-south, centre-periphery,
high-low binaries) we have to know our place in the field… and
the place of those we read.
 Knowing one‘s place is about much more than knowing one‘s
theoretical location as some naval gazing exercise. Only when
you know the conditions of possibility for a discourse do you
read from a position that can seriously critique it (since knowing
the conditions of its production furnishes you with an imminent
frame of reference – rather than an absolute one – from which
truth claims can be tested).
 Knowing your own position, and the methodology of the author,
situates both reader and text historically (and geographically),
and therefore renders provisional any claims to truth.
Parkes, R. J. (2008). The postcolonial as a (new) commonplace of Australian curriculum inquiry? Paper presented at the Paper presented at
the annual conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE), Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, 30
November - 4 December.