Notes for a sociogenetic analysis of the problem-centered curriculum

Abstract

This article aims, firstly, to outline an original interpretation that helps us to understand the emergence of the centenarian school tradition that has defended a problem-centered curriculum. As we will show, its birth and development cannot be understood apart from the crisis of the nineteenth-century liberal order and the struggles for a “social democracy”, which, among other aspirations, included that of a more egalitarian and inclusive school system. In this context, the problem-centered curriculum will emerge as a comprehensive and integrated alternative to the dominant disciplinary academicism, for the sake of redefining “general education for all” in a democracy. In relation to the above, these pages will attempt to properly appreciate the meaning and scope of this alternative within the field of conflicting forces that is the curriculum. Secondly, a review will be made of the reactions and obstacles of different types (institutional, professional, macro and micro-political) that have been placed in its way. Finally, some reflections on its present and future will be offered.