抄録
We are now facing the issue of reorganizing school subjects. One reason necessitating this reorganization is the reduction in school hours due to the start of the five-day school system, and another is the rapid development of a new ideology of school achievement. It is time to prepare for radical changes in the curriculum field, and therefore we should seriously pay attention to and reflect upon curriculum studies, especially its methodological aspects. In this article, through a historical analysis of the method and procedure involved in the construction of the curriculum, I discuss how the methodology in curriculum studies unfortunately came under the strong influence of functionalism. I then argue that the recent reproduction theory or correspondence theory in curriculum studies inevitably suffered from the hidden influence of functionalism. In conclusion, I suggest some fundamental points critical of functionalism, and propose a political approach that focuses upon the economic, cultural and political inequality and discrimination present in the actual process of curriculum development. The contents are as follows. 1) The objectives and task of this study. 2) The relationship between recent curriculum studies and post-modernism. 3) A perspective on methodological criticism. 4) A criticism of functionalism and the fact of social inequality. 5) From criticism of reproduction theory to the start of a political approach. 6) What is the political structure of the Japanese school curriculum. 7) A modest conclusion.
