Social Reconstruction Curriculum and Technology Education

Abstract

In the first half of the century, during the depths of the Great Depression, Progressive educators set out to reform education by calling for a social reconstruction curriculum orientation. In this paper I will explore social reconstruction with regard to schools, curriculum, and technology education. In the first half of the paper I will explore what was meant by social reconstruction, the way in which it was implemented in experimental schools, and the legacy of social reconstruction. In the second half of the paper I will discuss the role of processes in technology education curriculum, provide ideas for organizing a social reconstruction curriculum orientation in technology education, and list examples of what a social reconstruction curriculum orientation in technology education is not.