The “Grammar” of Schooling: Why Has it Been so Hard to Change?

Item

Title

The “Grammar” of Schooling: Why Has it Been so Hard to Change?

Abstract/Description

Why have the established institutional forms of schooling been so stable and why did most challenges fade or become marginalized? We approach these questions by probing a few case studies of reform, some that lasted to become part of the grammar of schooling and some that did not. We begin by exploring the origins of two enduring institutional forms, the graded school and the Carnegie unit. Next we analyze the history of three transient attacks on the grammar of schooling: the Dalton Plan, the Eight-Year Study, and the new model flexible high school of the 1960s. In each case political and institutional perspectives inform our interpretations. Finally, we reflect on what the case studies suggest about the nature of institutional continuity and change and offer some policy implications for reform today.

Author/creator

Tyack, David B.

Tobin, William

Date

1994

In publication

American Educational Research Journal

Volume

31

Issue

3

Pages

453-479

Resource type

en Research/Scholarly Media

Resource status/form

en Published Text

Scholarship genre

en Historical

Language

en

Open access/full-text available

en No

Peer reviewed

en Yes

ISSN

0002-8312

DOI

10.3102/00028312031003453

URL

Official Publisher's Webpage (SAGE Journals)

Citation

Tyack, D., & Tobin, W. (1994). The “Grammar” of Schooling: Why Has it Been so Hard to Change? American Educational Research Journal, 31(3), 453–479. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312031003453

Cited in

Democratizing Educational Innovation and Improvement: The Policy Contexts of Improvement Research in Education

Item sets

Handbook Chapter 10 Citations

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