Allan, George.  "Process Philosophy and the Educational Canon."  Process Studies 20, no.2 (Summer 1991): 89-101.

Abstract

The current argument in education about a canon of privileged texts students should be required to know is about whether or not reality is ordered hierarchically into essential and accidental elements.  This dispute can be resolved by using William James and Erving Goffman to develop the notion of a canon as an historically derived framework students (and all other members of a culture) need to know in order to interpret meaningfully their inherently unframed present experiences, each newly emerging present requiring constantly the reformulation of that framework.  [Abstract from The Philosopher's Index]