5
hope, no matter how finite, of making society more just.
An important caveat should be made about the above thought experiment. Although it is
based largely on concrete research findings from actual American classrooms (Loewen 1995;
Brown and Kelly 2001; Ogbu 1994), it represents only one end of the curricular spectrum.
While most mainstream high school history textbooks do in fact paint a reductive picture of their
subject matter, with countless omissions and numerous fabrications (Loewen 1995: 14-7), this
does not mean that all schools that use them do their students a disservice. The reason for this is
simple: knowledge is not transmitted from textbooks to the minds of students in a direct and
straightforward manner. Instead, a complex process of negotiation occurs, in which the teacher,
the setting, and the students play a crucial role. Thus, even the worst textbook can be used to
teach an enriching course, provided that it is interpreted in a constructive manner. This
malleability of classroom content does not, however, diminish the central point of the earlier
hypothetical example: the curriculum matters.
The link between the contents of a history book and the notion that mainstream schooling
is a job-oriented endeavor may not be immediately apparent. After all, what does the portrayal
of Woodrow Wilson have to do with the creation of good workers? To answer that question, it is
necessary to shift one’s perception of the curriculum from that of a neutral enterprise arrived at
through objective scientific means to that of a necessarily value-laden ideological process that
forms at the intersection of powerful social forces. Here, the term ‘ideological’ is not intended as
a negative moral judgment (though in some cases such a judgment may be warranted), but rather
a loose notion of a collection of beliefs about the world, which are created by particular social
arrangements. Crucially, those social arrangement and social forces are not haphazard; they are
permeated by power, which shapes them in a manner that favors certain groups, while it excludes
Convention