ABSTRACT
I have argued elsewhere that whilst ‘the rhetoric and manoeuverings of educational politicians and subject associations may reveal a great deal about the framework of limits and possibilities within which teachers and pupils work in the classroom…neither the teacher nor the pupils are entirely passive recipients of the “espoused” curriculum’.1 This chapter will take the view that curriculum history must therefore encompass the manner in which the curriculum is received and enacted and that the life history provides one method for examining this process. In the case of teachers, Woods (1980) has eloquently argued that for the teacher he studied, Tom:
A curriculum area is a vibrant, human process lived out in the rough and tumble, give and take, joys and despairs, plots and counter-plots of a teacher’s life. It is not simply a body of knowledge or set of skills, nor simply a result of group activity. Tom’s case shows that, to some extent at least, individuals can and do chart their own courses, and can engage with the curriculum at a deep personal level. For a full appreciation of this I have argued we need to take a whole life perspective.2
