부산대학교 도서관

The writer examines conceptions of curriculum and paradigms for research. Reviewing alternative theories of curriculum and the research paradigms they engender and comparing these to projects undertaken in the last 50 years show that the correlation between scientific progress and the rise and fall of modes of inquiry appears tenuous at best. Those who lack awareness of the historical picture of how and why research paradigms supersede each other risk falling victim to the “logical march” illusion. Individuals under this illusion believe that their theory or method must be the best because it is the latest. However, it is a mistake to dismiss academic theory as a sideshow. Theory keeps alive as many sources and stocks of vocabulary as possible in a field where others exert implicit control over the vocabulary of practice. It is necessary that rich traditions of discourse be available so that real choices exist about the new understandings that might replace the old. It is equally important that higher education resist the pressure to regard such traditions, along with the schools, as things that need to be “transformed” for the benefit of interest groups.