Genealogical Research

Cross-Sectional Rather than Longitudinal

Conventional or mainstream histories typically focus their analyses on continuities and on changes across time; however, genealogical research resembles archaeology, which focuses on a single stratum [Page 398]or cross section. With an analytical focus on the relationships among various entities in a single time period, genealogical research does not concern itself with several of the persistent debates in traditional historiography. For example, genealogical research does not engage in the search for origins, claims of historical causality, questions of peri-odization, fallacies such as presentism, or metaphysical motors of history.

Some curriculum history has been written from the standpoint of the history of ideas, providing various accounts of changing relationships among language arts, mathematics, and science. Genealogical research, in contrast, historicizes subjects and objects by situating them in relation to other things that are happening at the same time. The archeological study then provided a basis for identifying a historically specific way of thinking that affords a critical genealogical perspective on the extent and limits of how it is possible to imagine being human.

Local Rather than General

Genealogical research strives to avoid grand narratives of history. Instead, genealogical research focuses on the local, the particular, and the unique. In curriculum studies, a genealogical focus on the local tends to promote a pluralist version of social justice and political relationships. This local focus of genealogical research has implications for theories of knowledge including progress, cycles, pendulums, dialectics, eschatology, destiny, and rational evolution. Epistemologically, genealogy's focus on the local tends to find value in small-scale and case-based studies rather than in large-scale or experimental research designs that aspire to generalize their findings beyond the site of their study.

Multidimensional Rather than Teleological or Linear

Traditional histories are often written as if there were an assumed purpose or endpoint of history (such as the advancement of science, the improvement of civilization, or the realization of eschatology). Furthermore, a traditional approach to history is likely to posit that time proceeds from past to future in one direction that resembles a number line. Eschewing linearity, genealogical research often challenges assumptions of both continuity (emphasizing how much things stay the same) and discontinuity (emphasizing how much things change) in traditional historical accounts. An epigram of continuous history is as follows: Every day in every way I am getting better and better. An epigram of discontinuous history is as follows: It is not possible to step twice into the same river. Genealogical research generally adopts a critical attitude to both continuity and discontinuity. Genealogical research is more likely to suggest that historical events can be shaped by a multiplicity of influences, and history is always shaped within a historically specific perspective.

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