Politics and Curriculum

A research column should be a marshaling of facts and findings which point to new directions for study, or to new fulcrums for control of educational action. However, as the editor of this column recognizes, ¹ research has two parts—the “search” and the “re.” Empirical considerations should be uppermost in the REsearch phase, for only through empirical means are the instrumental values of findings identified and their power for influencing educational actions tested. Hence, the need for the curricular REsearcher to be conditioned by social science methodology. Yet other considerations must be uppermost in the reSEARCH phase—during search activity fruitfulness for educational thought becomes more important than power for educational action. The curricular reSEARCHer must consequently be conditioned by the methodologies of the imaginative enterprises—primarily poetry and speculative philosophy.