Abstract
Early in 1960, the Educational Policies Commission of the National Education Association (NEA) circulated a draft policy document that sought to clarify for the nation the necessary function of the public schools.The manuscript, entitled “The Controlling Purposes of American Education,” was occasioned by the rapid changes that were taking place in all facets of society. It began by laying out the fundamental assumptions that needed to be considered in reconstituting education in the United States. Foremost among these was the new social role that science had assumed.
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Introduction
1. Educational Policies Commission, “The Controlling Purposes of American Education,” unpublished typescript, 8 January 1960, pp. 3, 7, 9, box 3, Muller Papers.This document was later published under the title The Central Purpose of American Education (Washington, D.C.: National Education Association, 1961).
2. See, for example, Educational Policies Commission, Education for All American Youth (Washington, D.C.: National Education Association, 1944).
3. See Bruce V. Lewenstein, “‘Public Understanding of Science’ in America, 1945–1965” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1987); and James Gilbert, Redeeming Culture: American Religion in an Age of Science (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1997).
6. For a summary of the social studies curriculum controversy, see “The National Science Foundation and Pre-College Science Education.” On the changing priorities of education in the 1970s, see Diane Ravitch, The Troubled Crusade: American Education, 1945–1980 (New York: Basic Books, 1983), 228–266; and Joel Spring, The Sorting Machine Revisited: American Educational Policy Since 1945, updated ed. (New York: Longman, 1989), 93–150. 206
Two of the more influential statements on science education that have assimilated the intellectual legacy of the NSF curriculum projects are:American Association for the Advancement of Science, Project 2061: Science for All Americans (Washington, D.C.: American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1989); and National Research Council, National Science Education Standards (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1996)
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© 2002 John L. Rudolph
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Rudolph, J.L. (2002). Introduction. In: Scientists in the Classroom. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230107366_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230107366_1
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