ABSTRACT
The central theme of this chapter is the relationship between an educational system, and particularly its curriculum, and the wider society within which the system is located. While most of this volume is concerned with the curriculum that is written down-what Jackson (1968) termed the ‘preactive curriculum’, this chapter focuses on what he called the ‘interactive curriculum: what Young (1977) calls ‘curriculum as practice’, rather than ‘curriculum as fact’, or Grundy (1987) ‘praxis’, rather than ‘product’. In Chapter 1, I drew upon the metaphors of the garden and cultivation to characterize the curriculum. Another common analogy is that of reflection: an educational system, many have said, inevitably reflects the society in which it is located.
