ABSTRACT
The school has always been a contested terrain where various social groups, forces, and influences battle for priority, and much research has been done on the policy implications and outcomes of this continuing struggle. One undeveloped area, however, has been the battle over the school curriculum. In scrutinizing this conflict we can examine in microcosm many of the social and political battles over priorities within schools. Far from being a technically rational product which dispassionately summarizes a society’s most valued knowledge, the school curriculum can, in fact, be seen as a carrier and dispenser of social priorities.
