ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to contribute to curriculum development by examining the culture of positivism and its relationship to classroom teaching through the lens of a recently focused social and educational problem, the alleged "loss of interest in history" among American students and the larger public. Underlying the suppression of historical consciousness in the social sphere and the loss of interest in history in the sphere of schooling in the United States at the present time are the rise of science and technology and the subsequent growth of the culture of positivism. The chapter explains how the culture of positivism undermines any viable notion of critical historical consciousness. It examines how the culture of positivism has influenced the process of schooling, particularly in relation to the way educators have defined the history "crisis" and its relationship to educational theory and practice at the classroom level.
