Herrick, Virgil

Virgil Herrick's (1906–1963) importance to the history of curriculum studies rests largely upon his role as a transitional figure in the field's mid-20th century reconceptualization from one in which scholars' main responsibility was curriculum development to one in which scholars strove to understand curriculum through multiple strands of curriculum theorizing. The most visible demonstrations of his role as a key figure in this transformation of the field are his sponsorship, with Ralph Tyler, of the 1947 University of Chicago Curriculum Theory Conference and his mentorship of James Macdonald and Dwayne Huebner, two major scholars who, among others, are credited with inspiring the reconceptualization.

Some curriculum historians proclaim the 1947 conference as the very birthplace of curriculum theorizing. Others disagree, based in part on Herrick and Tyler's own statement in the conference proceedings that little progress in curriculum [Page 437]theorizing had been made in the 20 years prior to the Chicago gathering. Most scholars, however, recognize the conference as a benchmark at the very least because it was the first effort to consider curriculum theory as theory. Having convened the conference for the purpose of identifying the major problems of curriculum theory, Herrick and Tyler confessed in the published proceedings to a sense of disappointment at the lack of recent progress in that area. However, pointing to the lack as a great opportunity for fruitful contribution to the field, they went on to identify several problems that did, indeed, eventually generate prolific scholarship and in some instances, curriculum controversies. The problem areas they highlighted in the proceedings, Toward Improved Curriculum Theory, included needs for (a) helping teachers make decisions in regard to balancing the well-being of individual children, the demands of society, and the academic demands of subject matter; (b) honestly recognizing and critiquing the role of values in curriculum work; (c) collaborating at all levels in the identification of critical issues and their underlying generalizations, as well as identification of what those levels are; and (d) addressing problems on a broad front through multidisciplinary teams that included a curricularist to synthesize and communicate the related research studies.

Although both Herrick's and Tyler's scholarship naturally manifests traits of an era that venerated science and progress, their separate bodies of work reflect dissimilar emphases that explain the different legacies each left in the field. For example, Tyler's contribution to the 1947 conference—“The Organization of Learning Experiences”—explicated one of the four steps of his well-known rationale. Although Tyler does not appear to have intended for the rationale to have been used in a technocratic fashion, its value-neutral veneer and its emphasis on objectives and evaluation made it highly compatible with the emerging demands for a more scientific and increasingly subject-centered curriculum. The works of major scholars who began their career under his direction, such as Louis Raths, John Goodlad, Benjamin Bloom, and Lee Cronbach, manifest Tyler's affinity for clear purposes that serve as a basis for evaluation.

Herrick's contribution to the 1947 conference—“The Concept of Curriculum Design”—also incorporated discussion of objectives, organization, subject matter, and evaluation. However, he strongly emphasized the need for analysis of curriculum designs and decisions through examination of their underlying value assumptions. Beginning their professional careers as students with Herrick at the University of Wisconsin, Macdonald and Huebner went on to develop this concern for value assumptions into some of the earliest efforts to understand curriculum as political text. In addition, one of Herrick's major interests—the analysis of classroom episodes as a method for testing the generative potential for various theoretical frameworks—can be seen as a prelude to Macdonald and Huebner's own work in creating new categories for curriculum thought.

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