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This article discusses the sociology of knowledge and curriculum planning. People interested in problems of the curriculum of schools can be divided into two groups. The first group, by far the largest, is mainly interested in the practical problems of the curriculum, of which bringing about some desirable change in the curriculum might be one. The theoretical basis for much of the work in this particular volume is to be found in a sub-discipline of sociology known as the sociology of knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to provide some account of the sociology of knowledge and to explore the implications for the study of the curriculum of this particular viewpoint. The author proposes to do this first by looking at the sociology of knowledge as it was formulated by researcher Karl Mannheim. Although Mannheim was by no means the first to put forward a set of ideas as the sociology of knowledge, he is the thinker who made these notions through his writings accessible to the English speaking world. Mannheim drew attention to two other features of political and social theories.

The article presents information on the new determinants of Keele University in Staffordshire, England curriculum which paved the way for new University curriculum. From the first, demands for a University in North Staffordshire were made with an eye to the local industries. This early activity bore fruit not in a University College, but in a North Staffordshire Technical College. Yet subsequent demands for a University continued to have a peculiarly local flavour although from 1914 the Technical College was providing educational facilities related to the industries of North Staffordshire. There was a renewed and again unsuccessful demand for a local university in 1919 when the idea was canvassed in the local press by Tutorial Class Students, who emphasized that ones needs are peculiar to oneself and cannot adequately be met by facilities provided by other centers. It is hardly surprising therefore that when the idea of a North Staffordshire University was again broached in 1945 it represented a direct continuation of earlier demands for a North Staffordshire University. The 1943 Report of the Association of University Teachers emphasized on technology and social studies as two fields in which regional attachment' would provide a valuable stimulus. The Report also called for more active extension work by the Universities.