Curriculum Models from Educational Theory

Abstract

This chapter presents a range of models from educational theory. Some are thoughtless habits that protect the status quo of practices for transmission of past knowledge, while others are more productive of transformation of schools, students, and society. First discussed is basic studies/essentialism, the dysfunctional default setting of many schools and educators. Especially problematic for music educators is perennialism, a commitment to the supposed “Great Works” and “great ideas” of Western civilization. More helpfully, progressivism is then addressed as based in Dewey’s pragmatic theory of “learning by doing.” Finally, reconstructionism and critical theory share an emphasis on overcoming social status quo class divisions that the traditional approaches to schooling were transmitting.