ABSTRACT
How a society selects, classifies, distributes, transmits, and evaluates the educational knowledge it considers to be public reflects both the distribution of power and the principles of social control within that society. The chapter introduces the concepts of ‘classification’ and ‘frame’, which will be used to analyse the underlying structure of the three message systems, curriculum, pedagogy, and evaluation, that are realizations of the educational knowledge code. Collection codes may give rise to a series of subtypes, each varying in the relative strength of its classification and frames. Integrated codes can also vary in terms of the strength of frames as these refer to teacher/ pupil/student control over the knowledge that is transmitted. Differences within and between educational knowledge codes from the perspective developed lie in variations in the strength and nature of the boundary-maintaining procedures, as these are given by the classification and framing of the knowledge.
