ABSTRACT
In his 2014 reflection on curriculum research in the United Kingdom, Ivor F. Goodson pointed to the ‘obsessive contemporality’ of our time as ‘allied with a belief that past curriculum traditions could, given conviction and resources, be transcended’. There has been, Goodson continues, a refrain of ‘innovation’, endless endorsements of ‘radical change in education’ and repeated promises of ‘revolutionizing classroom practice’, all accompanied by constant confidence in ‘redrawing the map of learning’. Not only is the past effaced in such phraseology, so is the present, including the expressive power of the teacher, often inflated to ensure the teacher’s culpability should test results disappoint. These circumstances have histories, as Goodson’s crucial contribution makes unmistakable: in his studies of the histories of the school subjects and in his life history research. In this chapter I review these and other studies emphasising the role of time in the scholarship of Ivor F. Goodson.
