Curriculum Thought, Categories Of

Since its inception, the curriculum field has exemplified diverse perspectives or schools of thought. Several of the prominent category schemes have been developed by Herbert Kliebard, Michael [Page 271]Schiro, William Pinar, Elliot Eisner, John McNeil, William Watkins, and William Schubert, among others.

When the curriculum field emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was already a time of considerable diversity as delineated by curriculum historian, Kliebard. He identified four categories or interest groups that emerged to contend in what he called a crucible of curriculum reform efforts: humanists, developmentalists, social efficiency proponents, and social meliorists. The humanists, such as Charles Eliot and William Torrey Harris, advocated variations on a liberal arts and sciences curriculum, whereas develop-mentalists such as G. Stanley Hall saw the ...