The awakening of public interest in curriculum has come at a time when, within the education profession, the conventional wisdom about teaching and learning has itself undergone a major transformation. New Constructivist theories of knowing have emphasized the social nature of the construction of knowledge: students learn by "putting it into words" or by building representations of the various symbolic systems (language, the arts, mathematics, myth) humankind has evolved to articulate ways of knowing. The recent history of the teaching of writing is typical of the ways that constructivist theories have evolved in a variety of educational contexts. The view emerging in research and practice emphasizes writing as a problem-solving activity guided by linguistic and cognitive strategies or "processes." As process-oriented instruction becomes the conventional wisdom, however, its limitations become more evident and recent commentators have sought to re-embed writing in its social contexts. Curriculum should provide a conversational space or domain within which students can engage new subject matter. This notion of curriculum has obvious ties to language (which firmly anchors it in contemporary theories of knowing and being) and is socially and culturally situated. An effective curriculum requires a constructivist pedagogy--one in which the roles of the teacher and learner are transformed to support the construction of meaning, rather than the transmission of knowledge. It is ultimately the teacher, in the day-to-day interaction with students, who enables them to construct meaning. (Contains 54 references.) (SAM)