Moving Beyond the "Rather Crude Instrument": Using Archival Sources to Reconstruct the College Curriculum and the Classroom

• In Event: 28.060 - Exploring Methods and Methodology in Biographical and Documentary Research

Abstract

This presentation argues that the common perception that there is a dearth of archival sources through which to reconstruct the curriculum and the classroom has caused most historians to over-represent ideology through extensive discussions of curriculum theorists and committees as well as the use of policy documents as “weathervanes” to “gauge which way the curriculum winds were blowing.” It focuses on ways in which studying the primary sources and personalities involved in curricular “cooperative studies” can help historians and other scholars to “penetrate” the college classroom.

Author

• Kevin S. Zayed, Denison University