ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to take stock of the current 'state of the nation' in social realist work in education. It starts with the social realist perspectives and attempts to place the development of ideas and research associated with social realism in a broad historical and geographical context. The chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents a particular analysis of the political undergirding of the social realist approach. It examines the field of curriculum studies in South Africa by empirically mapping courses on curriculum across a sample of the nation's universities. The book argues that the centrality of knowledge in the study of history in New Zealand has been significantly disturbed in recent years. It investigates how knowledge is recontextualised by and for 'regions' such as human resource management, chartered surveying and early years education.
