Historically, nationalism and the curriculum are closely connected. The affirmation of the principle that each state should represent a national collective in the nineteenth century, turned schools into powerful means to legitimate institutional power by disseminating national identities and crafting national collectives. Since then, nationalism has re-shaped the curriculum across the globe. An accurate understanding of this phenomenon is therefore crucial for curriculum scholars.

The understanding of the concept of nation and all its related terms is the object of a dedicated field of research characterized by lively debate. This chapter aims to provide a map for curriculum researchers to identify the most useful concepts, as well as to reflect on their methodological and theoretical consequences, benefits, and risks. Drawing on an extensive literature review, it identifies three approaches to nationalism in curriculum research: the ideal norm approach, the typological approach, and the claim-based approach.

The chapter argues that elite-based approaches building on nationalism as a global norm or ideal type risk over-emphasizing the extent and homogeneity of the impact of nationalism on the curriculum. By putting the process of curriculum-making at the center of the analysis, and focusing on its protagonists’ own understanding and prioritization of nationalism, claim-based approaches take into account recent critiques of the methodological statism and nationalism advanced in both nationalism and curriculum research. They therefore can significantly advance our theorizing of the relationship between nationalism and the curriculum, and help us to identify how, when, and under which conditions nationalism contributes to shaping the curriculum – and when it does not.