This paper identifies the general shifts in curriculum research from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. Information is drawn from periodic reviews or summaries of the research literature. A comparatively larger number and variety of individual studies have been reported, but places to publish state-of-the-art curriculum reviews have become more scarce. Because of these factors, specialized and fragmented reviews have replaced systematic, comprehensive ones. Curriculum scholars have turned from positivistic inquiry to a range of newer forms of inquiry in a climate of uncertainty and defensiveness. Less attention has been paid to what needs to be studied in the curriculum field. Researchers' conception of curriculum has changed. Curriculum is no longer thought of as a deductive science but as a practical art. Recent curriculum research has become more aligned with this new conception. Two earlier papers by the author on this topic are appended. "Curriculum Knowledge: Kinds and Processes" (1974) discusses four types of knowledge generated by properly conducted curriculum research: disciplinary; conjunctive; technological; and practical. "Another Look at Curriculum Knowledge" (1984) contains the author's positive and negative reactions to his 1974 paper. (JAZ)