Abstract
From the historical viewpoint, is it possible that curriculum and teacher education could have been integrated at the beginning of the era of curriculum studies? This paper focuses on the development of type study in the 1910s by C. A. McMurry (1857-1929) as a pioneering curriculum theory surveying the scope of teacher education. McMurry was a key thinker of American Herbartianism. Viewed as a sub-concept that explains key concepts of Herbartianism, the type study has not been given much attention. However, paying renewed attention to the type study developed and modified in the 1910s present a curriculum theory embedded within teacher education. In the 1910s McMurry had stubbornly connected the contents of type study with large social enterprises, i.e., projects, which required the organic integration of knowledge in the specific context. The development of concept from type study to project did not imply that of methodology. Even though he used the phrase ‘teaching by projects’, he never used the expression ‘project method’, in spite of admitting that the method was in fashion in the 1920s. It is evident that he was thinking of what is now called pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). If the process of unit development is regarded as reorganization of PCK, it is inevitable to take into consideration the existence and expertise of teachers in the actual context. McMurry’s pursuit of unit development literally demonstrated this as a precursor in the 1910s. There is no doubt that factors such as his positions and the impact of his second visit to Germany contributed significantly to his reasoning, but the nature of type study, i.e., project, consequently led him to the practice. It was only toward the end of the 20th century that a highly professional nature of the teacher’s expertise began to be realized in curriculum study. In light of this, McMurry’s type study, i.e., project, was truly groundbreaking.
