Curriculum Inquiry

Traditions of Forms of Curriculum Inquiry

Curriculum inquirers draw on a wide array of research traditions filled with controversies, contradictions, and complexities. As early as 1938, John Dewey developed logic: the theory of inquiry in which matter and form are intertwined in a flux of continuous movement among the past, present, and future situated in contexts. For Dewey, conception without perception is empty and perception without conception is blind. Human importance should [Page 214]be the primary purpose of inquiry. A separation of matter from form, conception from perception, operations from humans, or inquiry from contexts leads to cultural waste, confusion, and distortion of human condition. Dewey's theory of inquiry is the foundation of forms of curriculum inquiry.

Parallel with Dewey's democratic ideas, the work of W. E. B. Du Bois, Anna Julia Cooper, and Carter G. Woodson also greatly influenced curriculum inquiry with activist orientations that connect the personal with the political, the theoretical with the practical, and research with equity, equality, and social justice. For instance, research on teachers that flourished during the progressive era promoted Dewey's democratic ideal in education and many aspects of life; action research in social sciences originated by John Collier and Kurt Lewin in the 1940s counteracted racial prejudice and promoted more democratic forms of leadership in the workplace.

Prior to the 1970s, Joseph Schwab created three important concepts for curriculum inquiry: the practical, the four commonplaces of curriculum (learners, teachers, subject matter, and milieu), and two forms of inquiries—stable inquiry and fluid inquiry. Ambiguous, incomplete, and fluid aspects of inquiry that focuses on changing real-life situations and contexts rather than on pre-established theories is central to curriculum inquiry. In the 1970s, various forms of curriculum inquiry flourished as the field was reconceptualized. Dwayne Huebner introduced phenomenology to curriculum studies and called for an exploration of experience of curriculum through five value frameworks: the technical, the political, the scientific, the aesthetic, and the ethical. Like Huebner's, James Macdonald's work provoked the Recon-ceptionalization Era, influencing generations of curriculum scholars. Macdonald perceived education as a societal pivotal point to explore oneself and the broader human condition in a meaningful context.

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