ABSTRACT
Curriculum theorists need to understand what exactly happens when particular proposals are introduced in particular ways in particular settings. It is no argument against the desirability of a Grand Design for curriculum that teachers may resent having one imposed, just as it is no argument for specifying behavioural objectives that teachers may welcome them. If teachers are to be involved in planning curricula because they are well qualified to do so, and not because it will keep them sweet. Once the workforce becomes proficient at gaining some genuine understanding of the nature of the enterprise, implementing will become a matter of rational dialogue. Much research in the area of curriculum implementation is less concerned with putting forward strategies for achieving successful change than with understanding what goes on at present between the drawing board and the death or adoption of a programme.
