ABSTRACT
The two grand narratives of teaching-traditional and progressive-entered this century like ideological cyclops. Their fortunes have subsequently waxed and waned as they were buffeted by economic, socio-political and ideological seismic shifts and social tremors. These grand narratives are usually described as being in opposition: each emphasizing and attempting to compensate for what the other allegedly does not possess, and, therefore, cannot provide. Grand narratives themselves can be regarded as the products of modernity and, it is claimed, in a postmodern age such cyclopic and myopic ideological perspectives are no longer sustainable: grand narratives are increasingly regarded as anachronistic (Boyne and Rattansi, 1990). It becomes necessary, therefore, to situate traditions of teaching within this wider milieu.
