ABSTRACT
It might be expected that work within the sociology of education that concerned itself particularly with aspects of the curriculum would make a major impact on curriculum studies, a field of enquiry concerned with relating curriculum theory and practice. Curriculum studies, as a distinctive field of educational theory and practice, is a relatively new arrival on the British scene. This chapter explores the work of Denis Lawton in some depth since not only is he one of the most prolific writers in this field, he is also, as director of London University's Institute of Education, the one nearest to the major arenas of educational debate and policy formation. It provides briefer comments about the work of those writers associated with the Centre for Applied Research in Education at the University of East Anglia. The chapter points to the problem of the institutional separation between curriculum studies as an enterprise and the more established academic disciplines of education.
