Values & Politics

A concern with curriculum has been an issue from colonial times to the present. The increasingly complex ethnic, racial, linguistic, and economic diversity of United States communities makes it difficult to reach an accord on what the school should offer and how children should be served. The question of what children should be taught has been focused on values, excellence, equity and choice. Competing groups struggle to determine how and whose children's needs should be met, whose culture will be validated, and whose values will be sustained. Current reform initiatives engaged in reflecting, rethinking, and restructuring aim at improving students' academic achievement and serving all students well through a solid and rigorous curriculum.

The Curriculum, Problems, Politics, and Possibilities  (1988), by Landon E. Beyer and Michael W. Apple, outlines the issues confronting teachers as they attempt to meet the needs of a diverse and complex society. The introduction sets the stage for the reader by listing eight concepts and the questions educators must try to resolve.

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