A Post-Modern Perspective on Curriculum

by William E. Doll Jr.

Doll draws relationships among the ideas advanced in chaos theory, Piagetian epistemology, cognitive theory, and the work of Dewey and Whitehead. In this book on the post-modern perspective on the curriculum, the author asserts that the post-modern model of organic change is not necessarily linear, uniform, measured and determined, but is one of emergence and growth, made possible by interaction, transaction, disequilibrium and consequent equilibrium. Transformation, not a set course, the book argues, should be the rule, and open-endedness is an essential feature of the post-modern framework. In the book, the author envisages a curriculum in which the teacher's role is not causal, but transformative. The curriculum is not the race course, but the journey itself; metaphors can be more useful than logic in generating dialogue in the community; and educative purpose, planning and evaluation is flexible and focused on process, not product.

Genres: Education, Philosophy

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

All over the place, but a good jumping-off point for this sort of thinking about curriculum.

[Jogar01 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very complex read. Doll takes us from the rise of modernity all the way to what he considers the next step in humanities social organization: the post-modern. He then makes propositions as to what curriculum should be in a post-modern society. Doll states that education as it is now is based on descartian and newtonian world views, that is, education is deterministic. He draws from all the classic psychologists and pedagogists to develop his post-modern paradigm: he goes from Piaget (living systems0 to Prigogine (chaotic order), from Bruner (cognitive science) to Dewey and Whitehead (process thought). What Doll leaves the reader with is a new way of developing curriculum to oppose the current Tyler rational that permeates US education, which is based on Taylorism and scientific curriculum development.

[Maureen Brunner · Rating 5 out of 5]

After 8 years as an K-12 teacher-librarian, two master's degrees, and three years as a doctoral student and teacher educator, I having finally found an intellectual home in postmodern philosophy and epistemology. Doll's writing has been the latest, and perhaps most influential, vehicle for transporting me to this new reality. It is true that I have, and will continue to struggle with, Doll's metaphors and analogies involving physics and mathematics. Not having enough background in these sciences, I often have trouble understanding the world through this "ways of knowing." But when Doll articulates his thoughts in terms of the theological, biological, and ecological, it makes me want to write poetry. Additionally, and more shocking, this book has encouraged me to rewrite my Philosophy of Education, a task that will send any sane educational scholar running for cover!

[Gea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still reading --- but so far this is a very good book that tells the historical story of how the world came into modernism (how the foundations of the modern world were established in philosophy and the physical world) and contrasts modernity with post-modernism – specifically, a constructive post-modern vision. So far, this book hasn’t even touched upon curriculum in the shallow sense of planning what kids are to learn; rather, it explores the concepts behind ‘curriculum.’