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ERIC Number: EJ999740
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Apr
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-189X
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Was There Really a Social Efficiency Doctrine? The Uses and Abuses of an Idea in Educational History
Fallace, Thomas; Fantozzi, Victoria
Educational Researcher, v42 n3 p142-150 Apr 2013
In the historiography on curriculum reform during the progressive era, one interpretive lens has dominated the study of 20th-century reform for more than 40 years: the idea of the "social efficiency" doctrine. In this historiographical essay, the authors briefly trace the rise of social efficiency as an idea in curriculum history, identify the four common assertions on which it is based, review the recent studies that challenge these assertions, and finally, suggest some ways to rescue the term from overuse and abuse. The authors argue that, historically speaking, "social efficiency" was a widely used, poorly defined, highly problematic term that had multiple uses for multiple scholars between the 1890s and the 1930s. Historiographically speaking, the authors argue the idea of the social efficiency doctrine has been an inconsistent, heterogeneous, and imprecise lens through which to explain long-term curriculum change.
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A