Discourse , Rationality , and Educational Research : A Historical Perspective of R E

In this essay I explore the relationship between research reviews and the fields o f study to which they pertain. Using the curriculum field as an example, ! argue that such reviews are venues where fields of inquiry are constituted, reproduced, and over time changed. This construction occurs, I suggest, as the discursive practices or rules o f reasoning embedded in the language in which these reviews are framed are transformed into curriculum policies or programs through a process that I liken to state building. Both these discursive practices and the policies which they allow constitute the regulative mechanisms o f the curriculum. I use the issues of the Review of Educational Research devoted to curriculum from 1931 through 1969 to explore this topic. Undertaking a genealogical examination, I explore the lineage o f these discursive practices, paying particular attention to their patterns o f discontinuity over time. ! use this genealogy to suggest how the curriculum field was constructed and to identify its regulative impact. In doing so, I look at how curriculum discourse works as an instrument o f power. 1 conclude the essay by considering what this exploration tells us in general about the relationship between reviews and f ields o f inquiry.