Originally published in 1987. Looking at the interplay between social, cultural, economic and professional interests that give form to contemporary school practices, this selection of chapters looks at how practices have been shaped by the struggles to define the American school curriculum in different subjects.

Thomas S. Popkewitz (born August 16, 1940) is a curriculum theorist and professor from the United States of America, on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education. His studies are concerned with the knowledge or systems of reason that govern educational policy and research related to pedagogy and teacher education. His research includes histories of the present, ethnographic and comparative studies of national educational reforms in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Southern Africa, and the US.

Series Editor's Preface. Editor's Preface 1. The Formation of School Subjects and the Political Context of Schooling Thomas S. Popkewitz Early Childhood 2. Becoming Scientific and Professional: An Historical Perspective on the Aims and Effects of Early Education Marianne N. Bloch Art 3. Art Education as Social Production: Culture, Society and Politics in the Formation of Curriculum Kerry Freedman Reading and Writing 4. The Reader, the Scribe, the Thinker: A Critical Look at Reading and Writing Instruction Jennifer Monagha and Wendy Saul Biology 5. Emergence of the Biology Curriculum: A Science of Life or Science of Living Dorothy B. Rosenthal and Rodger W. Bybee Mathematics 6. Mathematics education in the United States at the beginning of the Twentieth century George M.A. Stanic Social Studies 7. Need as Ideology: Social Workers, Social Settlements, and the Social Studies Michael Bruce Lybarger Special Education 8. The First Crusade for Learning Disabilities: The Movement for the Education of Backward Children Barry M. Franklin 9. Why is There Learning Disabilities? A Critical Analysis of the Birth of the Field in its Social Context Christine E. Sleeter Counter-Traditions and the Politics of Silence 10. Outside the Selective Tradition: Socialist Curriculum for Children in the United States, 1900-1920 Kenneth Teitelbaum 11. Harold Rugg and the Reconstruction of the Social Studies Curriculum: The Treatment of the 'Great War' in his Textbook Series Herbert M. Kliebard and Greg Wegner