The Intentional Curriculum: An Exploration of Academic and Intellectual Politics

Discipline or profession, a field of study and practice is defined by some unifying telos, or purpose. This is no mere empirical, or even prescriptive, observation, especially for professions. A particular relationship should exist between professions and society—a relationship of obligation and integrity. Professions are based on expert provision of goods and/or services that enhance the well-being of people. That is, they should be. Howard Gardner and Lee Shulman (2005) have outlined the elements that typify professions: In our view, six commonplaces are characteristic of all professions, properly construed: a commitment to serve in the interests of clients in particular and the welfare of society in general; a body of theory or special knowledge with its own principles of growth and reorganization; a specialized set of professional skills, practices, and performances unique to the profession; the development of capacity to render judgments with integrity under conditions of both technical and ethical uncertainty; an organized approach to learning from experience both individually and collectively and, thus, of growing ne