Time as a Finite Resource in Education: Theorizing Temporality in School Culture

This chapter addresses the topic of acceleration, education, and time in relation to cultural change and continuity in K–12 school curriculum. Discussion centres on the concept of time and temporality and the perceptions of time as part of cultural and cognitive processes in reference to primarily English-speaking cultures in North America. The evidence presented and examined in this interdisciplinary study of time in education is a selection of scholarly readings from the humanities and sciences, readings from magazines, scholarly and popular videos, and discussion of movies and television series episodes that feature time as a major component of the plot, story, and message. With perspectives in psychology and cultural studies of time, evidence is discussed for addressing the view that time is a finite resource in American education. As such, this study addresses culture as a mediating component of the conceptualization of time and the implementation of time in the school context.