William Arbuckle Reid

Who is William Arbuckle Reid?

William A. Reid is a well-known British curriculum theorist who was born in Gloucestershire in 1933. After obtaining his B.A. degree from Cambridge University, he first taught in English high schools. He went on to conduct curriculum research at the University of Birmingham, where he obtained his Ph.D and subsequently taught M.Ed. students. He took early retirement from the University of Birmingham in 1988 and was appointed as a visiting professor at the London Institute of Education, and subsequently the University of Texas, Austin. He also undertook collaborative projects with colleagues at the University of Oslo and taught summer schools at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. Some of his reminiscences were published in 2009 in "Leaders in Curriculum Studies", edited by E.C. Short and L.J. Waks. In retirement he has also published pamphlets and articles concerning archaeology studied in his native Cotswold landscape.

His major academic works elaborated on curriculum theorist Joseph Schwab's notion of "curriculum deliberation". He is the author of numerous scholarly articles and several books, and was a regular contributor to the Journal of Curriculum Studies.