40 Years On: Social Class and Curriculum in the Era of Neoliberal Standardization

• In Event: Perspectives on Curriculum Policy Implementation: History, People, and Places

Abstract

In this project, I conducted a qualitative, comparative case study of two New York City public schools with distinct social class and curricular contexts to analyze the curriculum-in-use. Drawing from Jean Anyon’s (1981) study, “Social Class and School Knowledge,” in which she found curriculum to be largely reproductive as connected to social class, I sought to understand the role of the Neoliberal standards-based reform movement in a current analysis of curricular reproduction. The major finding of this study is that standards-based reform significantly impacts curriculum, imposing a rigid, skills-based structure onto schools. Whereas in Anyon’s research this rigidity stemmed from teacher bias, it now stems from state and federal policy.
(110 words)
Key Words: scripted curriculum, social class, curriculum,

Author

• Johanna Barnhart, Hunter College - CUNY