Eisner's Understanding of Knowledge: 1967 Through Today

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: Eisner in a New Era: Accountability, Knowledge, Aesthetics, and Criticism

Abstract

This paper, part of a broader project on the history of standards in education, utilizes Eisner’s writings to analyze historical shifts in educational standards from the late 1960s through today. We rely on two essays written in 1967 and 1995 that discuss whether educational objectives (in 1967) and national standards (1995) “help or hinder” the curriculum development process. Specifically, we utilize Eisner’s main arguments to analyze historical documents from three states that capture a shifting educational landscape. Applying Eisner’s expansive definition of knowledge to these documents, we find that a rational approach to education has led to a narrowing understanding of knowledge, and a subsequently narrow curriculum, over the past forty years.

Authors

• Sarah Anne Eckert, The Pennsylvania State University

• David A. Gamson, The Pennsylvania State University