Despite the 'progressive' influence of the English Plowden Report and Scottish Primary Memorandum on British primary curricula from the 1960s onwards, secondary education has generally continued to follow a more traditional subject-centred route and post-war educational theorists have not generally been favourably inclined to other than subject-based modes of curriculum planning and organisation. However, in the light of current curriculum reviews on both sides of the Scottish border-callingfor more educationally meaningful curricula-the perennial issue of how school knowledge might best be (...) ordered for the coherent educational experience of pupils seems worth revisiting. To this end, this paper examines some of the influential post-war philosophical arguments against integrated and interdisciplinary approaches to the curricular organisation of knowledge, concluding that they are not as compelling as they might formerly have seemed. (shrink)

Según Alasdair MacIntyre, la Universidad liberal descansa en ficciones que encubren sus propósitos y le proporcionan una legitimidad engañosa. Esta crítica no siempre se ha entendido en su profundidad, y se suele ver en ella una actitud reaccionaria de retorno nostálgico a la Universidad medieval. Se analizan esas ficciones: la sobre-especialización como sinónimo de profundidad investigativa, la neutralidad y la objetividad como posibilitadoras de racionalidad, y la excelencia en la gestión como forma de asegurar el logro de sus objetivos. Se (...) muestra cómo, a través de esta denuncia, aparece una postura revolucionaria, influida por Marx y Nietzsche, que busca desenmascarar las contradicciones internas de la Universidad liberal. According to Alasdair MacIntyre, the liberal University is based on fictions that hide its purposes and provide a misleading legitimacy. This critique has not always been understood in its depth and is often seen as a reactionary attitude, nostalgic for the medieval University. This article analyzes these fictions: over-specialization as a synonym for deep research, neutrality and objectivity as enablers of rationalism, and excellence in management as a form of ensuring its objectives. It shows how this indictment manifests a revolutionary position, influenced by Marx and Nietzsche, which seeks to unmask the internal contradictions of the liberal University. (shrink)