ABSTRACT
All Latin American states fall into the World Bank's category of middle-income economies. Latin American countries share a common culture and common historical experience. The education systems of the various Latin American countries also have much in common both in structure and dominant education philosophies. Three views of worthwhile knowledge predominate in contemporary Latin America. An encyclopaedic view was adopted along with other French institutions in the early nineteenth century. Encyclopaedism has been challenged in recent years as the institutionally dominant view by curriculum theories imported from the USA especially those stressing behavioural objectives. The encyclopaedist view entered Latin America as a result of the wars of liberation of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The highly publicized and prominent use of North American curriculum objectives gives a greater apparent sophistication and socioeconomic relevance to the traditional standardized encyclopaedic curriculum.
