Curriculum Studies, The Nature Of: Essay 2

When considering the nature of a field of study, I think most immediately about two of its key [Page 248]constitutive components—knowledge and scholarship. A field of study is constituted of a dynamic body of knowledge that develops and changes to define the field and to represent it to and in the world. It is also constituted of an active scholarly enterprise that creates new knowledge that sustains the field and circulates that knowledge as meaningful within in broader contexts (including academic, sociopolitical, cultural, and practical contexts, for example). Knowledge and research are not mutually exclusive, but are rather interdependent. Together they inform, challenge, and inspire the field; they ensure the field as independent with its own identity and as distinct from other fields; and they ...