Curricular Topics As Institutional Categories: Implications for Theory and Research in the History and Sociology of School Subjects

In this paper I make the assumption that the object of studying the history of school subjects, or of examining them from sociological perspectives, is to increase our understanding of how and why topics and activities acquire (or lose) educational significance. This view I contrast with one which would hold that work of this kind should be directed towards responding to historical or sociological rather than educational questions.