Reconstructionism is a group of related curriculum proposals that, although evolving from the social reconstructionist ideas of George Counts, Harold Rugg, and Jessie Newlon, developed a distinct rationale and proposal for advancing education as an agent for social reform. This movement differs from social reconstruction in its promotion of a rationale for a social issues curriculum, its use of psychology and sociology to inform this rationale, and in providing specific curricular and instructional guidelines. The developed proposal for reconstruction education was developed by Theodore Brameld with variants presented in the influential synoptic curriculum text, Fundamentals of Curriculum Development by the B. O. Smith, W. O. Stanley, and J. H. Shores, all from the University of Illinois.

Brameld developed his proposal in the 2 decades following World ...