The article examines the contemporary studies on the construction of school curricula as well as the selection processes concerning the knowledge to be taught. It also considers the relevance and urgency of producing a critical reflection on the modes of cultural transmission involved in different pedagogical environments. To this end, this problematization will be addressed in the context of curricular studies, indicating the ways in which centrality is assigned to the concept of school knowledge. The work of three social thinkers of the twentieth century will be reviewed: Émile Durkheim, Antonio Gramsci and Hannah Arendt. Under different theoretical conditions and from divergent argumentative assumptions, these thinkers point to the social and political relevance of the task of cultural transmission in schools.
Culture; Knowledge; Educational Theories; Curriculum