Trying Transformations: Curriculum Integration and the Problem of Resistance

A critical examination of the efforts of a curriculum integration project, a 4-year cross-disciplinary project that involved 45 participants from 13 departments. Although the overall efforts of the project were successful in terms of the incorporation of material on women into the traditional curriculum, the complex dynamics of the interaction between feminists & traditional educators illustrate the problems of resistance to curriculum integration. These resistances include disagreement over the goals of curriculum integration, discounting of F voices & authors, difficulties in language, reductionist argumentation, & discomfort with the levels of change suggested in the process of revision. Strategies to deal with these resistances are suggested. AA