Curriculum Leadership

There is a wide range of possible definitions of curriculum leadership given the fact that there are over 100 interpretations of curriculum in the curriculum studies literature and over 200 interpretations of leadership in the leadership studies literature. However, despite this potential proliferation of meaning, there are very few specific definitions of curriculum leadership in the current literature; and with a couple of exceptions, these definitions do not reflect a disciplined understanding of contemporary curriculum studies. For purposes of this entry, curriculum leadership is defined as practical explanation, justification, guidance, and demonstration of a disciplined theoretical position on innovative curriculum work. This definition is appropriate for this encyclopedia for two reasons. Over the past 40 years, a strong majority of scholars in the curriculum studies field have championed educational innovation over business as usual, and they have done so in highly diverse ways. At its inception, this avant-garde trajectory was characterized as the reconceptualization of the curriculum field. Because this encyclopedia is an artifact of this reconceptualist heritage, a definition of curriculum leadership focusing on innovative work is appropriate. In April 2006, at the business meeting for the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies (AAACS), William Pinar argued that it was time for curriculum scholars to begin to think carefully about the disciplinary nature of their field. His argument was accepted by the AAACS membership and served as a key starting point for that organization's ongoing curriculum studies canon project. It is, therefore, also fitting to provide a definition of curriculum leadership, stressing disciplined theoretical work.

This entry elaborates on key distinctions of the definition of curriculum leadership provided here. Next, the entry discusses the Curriculum and Pedagogy Group, whose mission is to advance such a definition of curriculum leadership. Finally, this entry examines the role of curriculum leadership for education of quality.