Curriculum, Definitions Of

The term curriculum has numerous definitions. Some educators see the numerous and diverse definitions as a problem (confusion perpetuated, chaos within the field, etc.), while others suggest that when analyzed carefully, these definitions differ little. So why bother to address this cacophony of curriculum connotations?

In his 1992 interpretation of the field, Philip Jackson offered a clear and straightforward explanation for multiple curriculum definitions in relation to the growth of the curriculum field. For him, new definitions represent efforts to change or embellish the traditional meaning (and the one still commonly used) of course of study. John Dewey expanded upon this notion by introducing the learner's experience into the definition. For Dewey, the child or learner would be helped to encounter the curriculum (school subject or course of study) in a recursive, ongoing set of reconstructive engagements. In other words, the child and her or his experience would inevitably provide meaning to the curriculum. Later, Franklin Bobbitt maintained this centrality of experience as part of his curriculum definition and introduced several new elements that would remain in the definitional stew: the idea of location (in or out of school) and oversight (directed or undirected). Said differently, Bobbitt suggested that a curriculum is an entire range of experiences in its broadest sense and that only some of those experiences fall under the auspices of schooling. Further, these experiences outside of schools are both directed and undirected in nature. In his analysis of curriculum, Herbert Kliebard expanded upon Bobbitt's notions of curriculum by acknowledging undirected curriculum experiences such as the null or hidden curriculum.

Although efforts to alter and embellish the traditional definition of curriculum as course of study have continued since the turn of the 20th century, the experience-centered range established by Dewey and Bobbitt remains largely intact. As the field of curriculum studies became more popular and complex during the past century, curriculum definitions continued to reflect Bobbitt's 1918 range—from course of study (or permanent school subjects) at one end to all learning experiences throughout life at the other. For more than a century, curriculum scholars produced new working definitions of curriculum, creating the field's definitional largesse. However, definitions do not come from curriculum scholars alone: every pedagogue, parent, pundit, policy maker, and politician has one, too. Today's conflicting definitions reflect different vantage points from which curriculum is engaged as well as different philosophies and foci regarding the relationship between schools and society. Moreover, the field is complex and understood in contradictory ways. In other words, the multiplication of curriculum definitions is not an urgent problem to be solved, but rather a state of affairs to be acknowledged as inevitable.

So why should curriculum workers concern themselves with the inevitable? The real purpose or value of a definition is its ability to clarify and explain one's understanding or position regarding curriculum. Of course, the motivation behind setting out one's position is to persuade others to choose this position or definition over another one—or at least to invite others into a shared understanding of one's own preferred definition and position toward some particular end. To accept this premise (i.e., that carefully articulating one's understanding of curriculum is done with the hope of persuading others to understand and embrace it) suggests that a curriculum conversation is constantly taking place among not only those with differing definitions of curriculum, but also those with differing vantage points and forums of engagement with curriculum. And while significant differences exist among these conversationalists (often based upon the nature of the curriculum work that they do), the more important questions in relation to curriculum definitions (and their respective arguments) have to do with which curriculum workers are actively participating in this larger conversation and toward what ends.

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