Cultural Studies in Relation to Curriculum Studies

In relation to curriculum studies, cultural studies refers to a broad, interdisciplinary field of study that serves as a theoretical and methodological framework for understanding how the hidden, null, and overt curricula of formal and informal educational environments contribute to the construction of marginal and/or oppositional identities. Within a cultural studies framework, curriculum is understood as a representational practice or ideological medium through which the power to define and produce knowledge, and hence the horizons within which identity is constructed and made meaningful, is asserted and opposed.

Cultural studies approaches to the study of curriculum can be quite varied. Some approaches take the form of critical, ethnographic studies of schools, youth subcultures, or forms of popular culture. Some curriculum scholars use key concepts developed in cultural ...