Curriculum and Imagination: Process Theory, Pedagogy and Action Research

261 Pages·2007·1.04 MB·English

by  James McKernan

Curriculum and Imagination
The story of curriculum theory and development over the last fifty years is
one of a lack of imagination, dominated by the results-driven “objectives
model” of curriculum, judging effectiveness through exam results and league
tables.
Curriculum and Imagination describes an alternative “process” model for
designing, developing, implementing and evaluating curriculum, suggesting
that curriculum may be designed by specifying an educational process which
contains key principles of procedure.
This comprehensive and authoritative book:
offers a practical and theoretical plan for curriculum-making without
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objectives;
shows that a curriculum can be best planned and developed at school
l
level by teachers adopting an action research role;
complements the spirit and reality of much of the teaching profession
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today, embracing the fact that there is a degree of intuition and critical
judgement in the work of educators;
presents empirical evidence on teachers’ human values.
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Curriculum and Imagination provides a rational and logical alternative for all
educators who plan curriculum but do not wish to be held captive by a
mechanistic “ends-means” notion of educational planning. Anyone studying
or teaching curriculum studies, or involved in education or educational plan-
ning, will find this important new book fascinating reading.
James McKernan is Professor of Education at East Carolina University, a
constituent institution of the University of North Carolina. He has authored
and edited several scholarly books and has several decades of educational
experience in Europe and North America.

Curriculum and
Imagination
Process theory, pedagogy and
action research
James McKernan
First published 2008
by Routledge
2 Park Square,Milton Park,Abingdon,Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave,New York,NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,an informa
business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2008 J.McKernan
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical,or other means,now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording,or in any information
storage or retrieval system,without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
McKernan,James.
Curriculum and imagination:process theory,pedagogy and action
research/James McKernan.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
1.Curriculum planning.2.Action research.3.Critical pedagogy.
I.Title.
LB2806.15.M393 2007
375.001—dc22 2006100286
ISBN 0-203-94693-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10:0–415–41337–0 (hbk)
ISBN10:0–415–41338–9 (pbk)
ISBN10:0–203–94693–6 (ebk)
ISBN13:978–0–415–41337–4 (hbk)
ISBN13:978–0–415–41338–1 (pbk)
ISBN13:978–0–203–94693–0 (ebk)
This book is dedicated to the
memory of Lawrence Stenhouse
(1926–82),
a curriculum Grand Master,
who gave curriculum research and development back to teachers.
Formerly Professor of Education,Director and Founder Member,
Centre for Applied Research in Education,
University of East Anglia,Norwich,England.

Contents
List of tables ix
Preface x
Acknowledgments xix
PART I
Curriculum: the theoretic domain 1
1 The curriculum and its ideological conceptions 3
2 Curriculum, quality and freedom 37
3 Curriculum design and theorizing 56
4 Some limitations of the objectives model in curriculum 70
5 A process-inquiry model for the design of curriculum 84
PART II
Democratic pedagogy: the practical 107
6 The teacher as researcher: action research as the basis for
teaching and professional development 109
7 Action research and philosophy: origins, nature and conduct of
inquiry 123
8 The action research seminar and democratic pedagogy 137
9 Controversial issues, evidence and pedagogy 149
10 Ethics, inquiry and practical reason: towards an improved
pedagogy 158
viii Contents
PART III
Teacher values and teacher education 175
11 Teachers’ human values and ideologies 177
PART IV
Curriculum and evaluation: the critical domain 197
12 The countenance of evaluation and the special place of action
research 199
References 218
Index 237
Tables
3.1 Personal-progressive 59
3.2 Academic-rational/liberal 59
3.3 Technical-behavioral 59
3.4 Practical-deliberative 60
3.5 Critical-political 60
3.6 Critical-artistic 60
3.7 Critical-existentialist-gender 61
5.1 Contrasting characteristics of outcomes-based and
process-inquiry models for curriculum 85
5.2 Technical (social market) values versus practical science
(hermeneutics) values 88
7.1 Cycles of inquiry, data gathering and analytic judgment 133
11.1 Terminal value medians (as composite rank orders) for
cross-cultural groups of American, Costa Rican, Palestinian
and Irish students and teachers 182
11.2 Instrumental value medians (as composite rank orders) for
cross-cultural groups of American, Costa Rican, Palestinian
and Irish students and teachers 183
11.3 The cumulative educational index 184
11.4 The cumulative caring index 185
11.5 The cumulative religious index 186
11.6 The cumulative political index 188
11.7 The cumulative social-humanistic cumulative index 189
11.8 The cumulative personal index 189