Abstract

Many educational studies reference ideology, imaginary, and myth constructs represented in programs of study, textbooks, and school rituals. In the fields of history, civic, and social studies education, for example, many scholars frequently employ these terms to examine mythic groundings of particular nationalisms entwined with the ways in which we perceive history and citizenship education. However, the lack of philosophical clarity about these concepts raises some crucial questions: in what ways should we distinguish these often overlapping key terms? How might they be put into relation for the purposes of researching such and engaging these terms pedagogically? To respond to these questions, I seek to outline the characteristics of and entwined relationships among ideology, subject, imaginary, and myth by engaging key influential scholarly and historical works. With the considerations of these characteristics and relationship, I attempt to add more precision to the conceptual bases crucial to elucidate unequal relations of power in curricula and schooling practices addressed across many fields constituting educational studies. In doing so, I hope that this groundwork provides curriculum scholars and teachers with meaningful ways to deliberate and employ these key concepts in the contexts of educational research and everyday schooling practices.