ABSTRACT
‘Sociology of the curriculum’ is to be understood only in terms of a project by sociologists to explore social processes and structures. Nevertheless sociological projects are themselves caught up in the structures and processes which they are attempting to analyse. It is in this self-conscious approach which most recent contributions have been couched. Thus various papers can be related to:
debates in an educational context, in which individuals and groups, as politicians, educational workers or interpreters, are involved in central questions about the provision and purposes of educational institutions. The debates are at base ideological and are part of the wider arguments concerned with the control of the state and the form that social relationships and the rights of man should take within the state;
reflections on an educational knowledge context, where there are debates about changes from a curriculum which emphasises separation and boundaries between subjects and between teachers and taught, to one in which integration becomes the key notion;
involvement in a sociological context where questions about continuity and change, and varying theoretical and methodological approaches are constantly being raised. Conflicts centre on how the meaning that individuals and groups seem to attach to social institutions and relationships can be embodied in sociological interpretations.
