Futures study is a forward-looking equivalent of history--not predicting the future, but attempting to discipline our anticipations of the future (or of a future) as we perceive it now. This paper investigates the extent to which futures study shares with history and comparative study an empirical, as distinct from normative, starting point for curriculum inquiry. Analysis treats anticipation as a practical or deliberative art and provides specific examples of methods and procedures for using arts of anticipation in curriculum study. Three general principles for exploring futures in education have significance for curriculum inquiry, including the following: (1) anticipation of a plurality of futures--investigating probable, possible, and preferred alternative futures; (2) an eclectic approach to sources and methods--examining major sources of alternative futures images; and (3) critique and negotiations of meaning--critically analyzing traditions, values, concepts, and images embedded in everyday language that mediate interpretations of experience. The paper discusses temporality in curriculum and the functions of temporal continuities and ambiguities in curriculum discourse. Included in the study are 7 figures and 22 references. (WTH)