Writing Histories of the Present

Historical research in the area of curriculum studies has tended to hew quite closely to traditional understandings of history as a matter of individuals, events, and causes and effects. Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) offers an alternative perspective on the past and present, one that sees history as erratic, discontinuous, and the result of operations of power and knowledge that exceed the level of the individual. This chapter begins with a brief overview of some of the theoretical underpinnings of FDA which make it unique among research methodologies in the field of educational research. The chapter then goes on to explore the types of questions that an FDA might pursue, the methodological tasks of FDA (including “archaeology” and “genealogy”), and closes with a discussion of two examples of FDA in curriculum studies.