The Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies provides a comprehensive introduction to the academic field of curriculum studies for the scholar, student, teacher, and administrator. The study of curriculum, beginning in the early 20th century, served primarily the areas of school administration and teaching and was seen as a method to design and develop programs of study. The field subsequently expanded to draw upon disciplines from the arts, humanities, and social sciences and to examine larger educational forces and their effects upon the individual, society, and conceptions of knowledge. Curriculum studies has now emerged to embrace an expansive and contested conception of academic scholarship while focusing upon a diverse and complex dynamic among educational experiences, practices, settings, actions, and theories in relation to personal and institutional needs and interests. The Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies serves to inform and to introduce terms, events, documents, biographies, and concepts to assist the reader in understanding aspects of this rapidly changing field of study.

Representative topics include:

Origins, definitions, dimensions, and variations on Curriculum Studies

Curriculum development and design for schools

Curricular purpose, implementation, and evaluation

Contemporary issues, e.g., standards, tests, and accountability

Curricular dimensions of teaching and teacher education

Interdisciplinary perspectives on institutionalized curriculum

Informal curricula of homes, mass media, workplaces, organizations, and relationships

Impact of race, class, gender, health, belief, appearance, place, ethnicity, language

Relationships of curriculum and poverty, wealth, and related factors

Modes of curriculum inquiry and research

Curriculum as cultural studies, exploring the formation of identities and possibilities

Corporate, state, church, and military influence as curriculum

Global and international perspectives on curriculum

Curriculum organizations, journals, and resources

Summaries of books and articles on curriculum studies

Biographic vignettes of key persons in curriculum studies

Relevant photographs