ABSTRACT
Since it is generally held that curricula are mainly concerned with the transmission of knowledge, it is perhaps surprising that so little attention has been devoted to the growth and decay of areas of interest, of valued skills and concepts, and to studying how their life cycles as elements of the curriculum relate to their careers in other academic spheres, or in society at large. All planned curriculum change takes place against a backdrop of shifting emphases, of new discoveries, of reappraisals of knowledge of which we are sometimes acutely, but sometimes only dimly aware. In areas where dramatic discoveries are unusual, changes in fashion may be so imperceptible that even the expert is barely conscious of them. Yet this backdrop is part of the reality of curriculum change – over long periods perhaps the reality when the best efforts of planners and designers have made their brief mark and been superseded by the next project or a newer fashion.
