ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the theoretical and historical interplay between German/North European and Chinese reactivated wisdom traditions, necessarily with some references to the Anglo-American curriculum theory too. One of the most pivotal figures in the history of education, Johann Friedrich Herbart, had ambivalent and contrasting alternatives for the notions of psychology with far-reaching implications for both European and Anglo-American developments of education and curriculum theory. In Europe, curriculum theory and curriculum studies are waiting for the reactivation that is already ongoing in North and South America. The unbridgeable split remained to, respectively, live in two radically differing intellectual alternatives for Western curriculum theory: North European Bildung/Didaktik and the Anglo-American Curriculum. The differing concept of freedom is highly consequential in all elements of education: from the image of a single teacher and school, to national curriculum design and education policy adopted.
