The Roots of Centralized Curriculum: The Political and Social Concerns of Early Educational Supervisors and the Emergence of Curriculum Studies

Document Type : Original Article

Author

University of Kasha

Abstract

The aim of this historical inquiry is to explore the fundamental efforts of early superintends in the emergence of the field of curriculum studies and the theory of centralized curriculum. The method of this enquiry is referring to first-hand references and works of early curriculum developers and supervisors.  The main focus of this historical research is on the conceptualizations and attempts of Franklin Bobbitt and Harold Rugg. Referring to the documents showed that the theory of centralized curriculum was explained as a systematic tool for narrowing schools’ authority and as a tool for inspecting and supervising. Several experts and executives followed this with different approaches. Harris proposed a supervisory approach based on developing textbooks, Babbitt clarified the idea of an activity curriculum that is based on standards, and Rugg immersed in compilation of textbooks and teachers’ guidebooks as a democratic method for improving the quality of education in schools and classrooms. The invaluable struggles of philosophers like John Dewey and Boyd Bud didn’t yield these attempts, and thoughts of supervisors such as Harris, Bobbitt and Charters became the mainstream of that age. These people, trusted in their scientific researches and supported by their executive authority, disseminated bureaucratic and supervisory point of view and propagated the necessity of a central and unified curriculum for school principals, teachers and even education experts. It seems that the birth of the field of curriculum studies was in fact the birth of the idea of a centralized or a national curriculum.

Keywords


Apple, Michael. W. (1990). I there a Curriculum Voice to Reclaim, Phi Delta Kappan, 71 (7): 526-530.  
Apple, Michael. W. (1991). The Culture and Commerce of the Textbooks. In: Michael Apple & Linda Christian-Smith, The Politics of Textbooks, London: Routledge.
Apple, Michael. W. & Christian-Smith, Linda. K. (1991). The Politics of Textbooks. In: Michael Apple & Linda Christian-Smith, The Politics of Textbooks, London: Routledge.
Barrow, Robin. (2015). Giving Teaching Back to Teachers: A Critical Introduction to Curriculum Theory. New York: Routledge Revivals.
Blakiston, J. R. (1888). The Teacher: Hints on School Management. London: MacMillan and Co.
Bobbitt, Franklin. (1913). Some General Principles of Management Applied to the Problems of City-School Systems (The Twelfth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education).  Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press.
Bobbitt, Franklin. (1915). The San Antonio Public School System: A Survey. Texas, San Antonio: G. F Sigmund Press.
Bobbitt, Franklin. (1915). What the Schools Teach and Might Teach. (The Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation). Philadelphia: WM. F. Fell Co.Printers.
Bobbitt, Franklin. (1916). Report of the School Survey of School District Number One in the City and County of DENVER. Colorado: The School Survey Committee.   
Bobbitt, Franklin. (1945). The Postwar Curriculum: The Functional versus the Academic Plan. The School Review, 53 (2): 77-84.
Bruner, Jerome. S. (1965). Man: A Course of Study. Cambridge, Mass: Educational Services. Available at: Eric (ED178390).
Dewey. John. (1896). The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology. The Psychological Review, 3 (4):357-370.
Dewey, John. (1899). The school and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dewey, John. (1903). Democracy and Education. The Elementary School Teacher, 4 (4): 193-204.
Dewey, John. (1916). Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. New York: The MacMillan Company.
Dewey, John. (1933). How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process. Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath & Company.
Elliott, Edward. C. (1914). City School Supervision: A Constructive Study Applied of New York City. New York: World Book Company.
Fearon, D. R. (1876). School Inspection. London: MacMillan and Co. 
Fellow, Henry. C. (1896). A Study in School Supervision and Maintenance. Kansas: Crane & Company.
Franklin, Barry. M. (2008). Curriculum history and its revisionist legacy. In: William J. Reese & John L. Rury (eds.). Rethinking the history of American Education. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. pp. 223-243.
Giroux, Henry. A. (2020). On Critical Pedagogy (Second Edition). London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Harris, William. Torrey. (1870). The Theory of American Education. Journal of Education, 2 (-): 1-19.
Harris, William. Torrey. (1902). Psychological Foundations of Education. New York: Appleton & Company. 
Holbrook, Alfred. (1873). School Management. Cincinnati: Geo E. Stevens & Co., Publishers.
Judd, Charles. H. & Marshal, Leon. C. (1918). Lessons in Community and National Life. Washington: Government Printing Office.
Kafka, Judith. (2009). Shifting Authority: Teachers' Role in the Bureaucratization of School Discipline in Postwar Los Angeles.  History of Education Quarterly, 49 (3): 323-346.
Kliebard, Herbert M. (2004). The struggle for the American curriculum. New York: Routledge Falmer.
Lascarides, Celia., & Hinitz, Blythe. F. (2000). History of Early Childhood Education. New York & London: Falmer Press.
McGregor, Georgette. (1953). The Educational Career of Susan Miller Dorsey. History of Education Journal, 5(1): 15-17.
Mayhew, Katherine. & Edwards, Anna. (1936). The Dewey School: The Laboratory School of the University of Chicago (1896-1903). New York: Appleton-Century Company. 
McMurry, Frank. M. (1913). Elementary School Standards: Instruction, Course of Study, Supervision (Applied to New York City Schools). New York: World Book Company. 
Neill, Alexander. S. (1960). Summerhill: A Critical Approach to Child Rearing. San Francisco: Hart Publishing Company.
Nutt, Hubert. Wilbur. (1920). The Supervision of Instruction. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. The School Laws of Michigan. (1869). The School Laws of Michigan with Notes and Forms. Lansing: W. S. George & Co.
Pickard, J. L. (1895). School Supervision. New York: D. Appleton and Company.
Pittman, Marvin. Summers. (1921). The Value of School Supervision: Demonstrated with the Zone Plan in Rural Schools. Baltimore: Warwick & York, Inc.
Rugg, Harold. (1931). Citizenship and Civil Affairs. Boston: Ginn & Company.
Rugg, Harrold. O. & Clark, John. R. (1918). Fundamental of High School Mathematics. New York: World Book Company.
Rury, Hogn. L. (2020). Education and Social Change: Contours in the History of American Schooling (Sixth Edition). New York: Routledge. 
Ryan, Alan. (1998). Deweyan Pragmatism and American Education. In: Amélie Oksenberg Rorty (Ed.), Philosophers on Education: Historical Perspectives. London: Taylor & Francis.
Sadafora, Giuseppe. (2009). The Problem of a science of education in John Dewey’s Thought. In: Larry A. Hickman & Giuseppe Spadafora (eds.). John Dewey’s Educational Philosophy in International Perspective: A New Democracy for the Twenty-First Century. pp. 48-58.
Smith, Samuel. James. (2020). Windows into the History and Philosophy of Education. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt.
Stenhouse, Lawrence. (1976). An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd.
Wagner, Charles. A. (1921). Common Sense in School Supervision. Milwaukee, Wis: The Bruce Publishing Company.
Waks, Leonard. J. (2009). John Dewey and Progressive Education, 1900-2000: the school and society revised. In: Larry A. Hickman & Giuseppe Spadafora (eds.). John Dewey’s Educational Philosophy in International Perspective: A New Democracy for the Twenty-First Century. pp. 70-86.
Walker, Decker. F., & Soltis, Jonas. F. (1997). Curriculum and Aims. New York: Teachers College Record.