Beyond Tyler and Taba: Reconceptualizing the Curriculum Process

These are dynamic times in the realm of curriculum. As we near the next century, we are asking ourselves if we finally should rid ourselves of our technological rationality and assume a new posture. A rising cacophony of voices is demanding that we detach ourselves from our technological-modern past and form a new paradigm-a post-modern perspective. We are being urged to purge ourselves of our adherence to the Tyler rationale, to get beyond Tyler and Taba. Many critics of Tyler and scientist-modernism appear to be urging us to wipe clear our slate of the past. However, as Toulmin (1990) states, the idea of starting again with a clean slate is a myth. And it is folly to assume that we must destroy all that was before in order to nurture a new start. To accept a new paradigm, to move beyond Tyler and Taba, does not require destroying our very past and discrediting these two curriculum thinkers. There is no new starting line where we can assemble and then advance into our futures with certainty. Indeed, such thinking is part of the very modernity that many of us wish to leave. All that we can do is to begin where we discover ourselves, and at the time in which we find ourselves. These are times of excitement and uncer-