Curriculum theory is the network of assumptions that undergirds curriculum proposals, policies, or practices, and is the critique of the same. Curriculum, and curriculum theory as a subset, is an offshoot of philosophy and social foundations of education that started in the early twentieth century.

Origins of Curriculum Theory

Curriculum theory and foundations of education, together, grew to prominence, and then starting in the 1930s began to become more differentiated at key universities such as Teachers College, Columbia University; Ohio State University; and the University of Illinois. These universities had strong early- to mid-twentieth-century social and cultural foundations faculty, many of whom became well known in curriculum theory and in foundations. Examples of some of the major contributors to the field from the first half the twentieth ...

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