Paradigms

The concept of paradigm within curriculum studies, shaped by Thomas Kuhn's influential work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, means a unifying theoretical framework of an academic discipline as well as a worldview. Paradigm shift occurs during times of great intellectual transformation as one paradigm is rejected and replaced by another, this usually taking place over a length of time as the original model becomes untenable in view of disciplinary discoveries and societal changes. Identification of paradigms allows scholars to make sense of their fields, to clarify and create new research questions, and to guide their methods and analyses.

In the field of curriculum studies, paradigms comprise assumptions about learning and teaching, the nature of reality, knowledge, intelligence, inquiry, discourse, the naming of problems and approaches to ...