ABSTRACT
Few people today are interested in discovering how to maintain curricula as they are. Yet the attempt to understand how to bring about curriculum change would seem to be hopelessly incomplete unless it also includes an investigation into the factors which tend to perpetuate existing practices. McKinney and Westbury argue that maintenance and change ‘are the two primary functions of the administrative and governing structures which surround the schools’, and that an appreciation of the interrelationship of these twin functions is a prerequisite of planning for curriculum innovation. Their perspective entails an extension of the sphere of curriculum theory to include the institutional framework within which curricula are devised and mounted: it also suggests the utility of engaging in case studies which extend over a long-time period – possibly several decades – as well as those which focus on the few months or years which cover the planning and introduction of a single innovative programme. The school system chosen to test out their ideas presents a number of features which make it suitable for a study of this type. In particular, as a result of its unique history (which is summarized in the early pages of the paper), it was twice subjected in the period under review to formal surveys by ad hoc commissions which produced comprehensive documentary accounts of the schools. These, together with other archives, provided the authors with many valuable data which they were able to supplement at critical points by interviewing some of those who participated as teachers or administrators in the events which are described. It is not possible to present all this material within the compass of the present volume, and the major focus of attention has been directed towards three areas of the curriculum – social studies, science and vocational education. These are studied against a general background of developments in the school system over a thirty-year period, and the results reviewed in the light of conclusions presented by other researchers in the field of curriculum theory.
