Reason of Schooling

Problematizing the "reason" of schooling as historical and political, in this book leading international and interdisciplinary scholars challenge the common sense of schooling and the relation of society, education, and curriculum studies. Examining the limits of contemporary notions of power and schooling, the argument is that the principles that order school subjects, the curriculum, and teaching reforms are historical practices that govern what is thought, acted on, and talked about. Highlighting the dynamics of social exclusion, the normalizing of people through curriculum, and questions of social inclusion, The "Reason" of Schooling underscores the urgency for rethinking curriculum research.

"Three questions provide a focus for the volume: What principles of “reason” historically order schooling, its subjects, and reforms? What historical conditions make those subjects possible? How can those conditions, and especially the problems of exclusion, be rethought?...Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, and practitioners."- R. R. Sherman, emeritus, University of Florida, in CHOICE, April 2015"The ‘Reason’ of schooling: Historicizing curriculum studies, pedagogy and teacher education makes a significant contribution to the field of curricu-lum studies, highlighting the most current global concerns in education. The book makes three significant contributions to the field of practice and policy: discussions around the intersections of various historical trails informing decision-making, the science of education as social dis-course to change social conditions, and social epistemology as a strategy to revise critical stud-ies of education." - Anna E. Du Plessis, Learning Sciences Institute Australia,The Curriculum Jounral, 2016 "Very little about schooling is taken for granted in this volume. The authors question the logic and values that underlie both widespread and local educational discourses. They historicize key concepts in discussions of school reform: teacher quality, interest in science, learning outcomes, teaching methodology, integration, adolescent development… They place these concepts, literally or figuratively, in quotation marks and examine how they arise or operate as ideologies within specific historical contexts."- Houman Harouni, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain

Thomas S. Popkewitz is professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA.