Higher education, Curriculum 2000 and the future reform of 14-19 qualifications in England

This article, which is based on research funded by the Nuffield Foundation, examines the responses of higher education institutions (HEIs) to the recent reform of advanced level qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, known as Curriculum 2000. The research, undertaken in late 2002 and early 2003 following the ‘graduation’ of the first cohort of Curriculum 2000 learners, combined documentary analysis, use of national survey findings and interviews with a sample of university admissions tutors from new (post-1992) and old (pre-1992) universities in England. The research shows that HEIs were generally well-informed about most aspects of the advanced level reforms and, at the level of public statements, welcomed the possibility of a broader advanced level curriculum. However, this relatively positive approach was not reproduced in terms of offer-making to candidates: admissions tutors, particularly in the pre-1992 universities, continued to make offers largely on the basis of predicted grades in three main A Levels. We argue that the reason for this cautious approach by the HEIs was not simply a result of their traditional support for subject specialisation, but also stemmed from systemic problems related to the Curriculum 2000 qualifications, their voluntarism and their less than universal up-take by schools, colleges and learners. We conclude by looking briefly at the implications of these research findings for the future reform of 14-19 curriculum and qualifications in England

The wicked and complex in education: developing a transdisciplinary perspective for policy formulation, implementation and professional practice

The concept of 'wicked issues', originally developed in the field of urban planning, has been taken up by design educators, architects and public health academics where the means for handling 'wicked issues' has been developed through 'reflective practice'. In the education of teachers, whilst reflective practice has been a significant feature of professional education, the problems to which this has been applied are principally 'tame' ones. In this paper, the authors argue that there has been a lack of crossover between two parallel literatures. The literature on 'wicked issues' does not fully recognise the difficulties with reflective practice and that in education which extols reflective practice, is not aware of the 'wicked' nature of the problems which confront teachers and schools. The paper argues for a fresh understanding of the underlying nature of problems in education so that more appropriate approaches can be devised for their resolution. This is particularly important at a time when the government in England is planning to make teaching a masters level profession, briefly defined by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) benchmark statement as 'Decision-making in complex and unpredictable situations'. The paper begins by locating the argument and analysis of 'wicked problems' within the nature of social complexity and chaos. The second part of the paper explores implications for those involved in policy formation, implementation and service provision. Given the range of stakeholders in education, the paper argues for a trans-disciplinary approach recognising the multiple perspectives and methodologies leading to the acquisition of reticulist skills and knowledge necessary to boundary cross. © 2009 Taylor & Francis

Citizenship Education as Placebo: 'standards', institutional racism and education policy

The issue of 'Institutional Racism' briefly rose to the top of the policy agenda when, in 1999, the British government was faced with a damning report into the circumstances surrounding the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence (an 18 year old Black college student). The official inquiry found evidence of institutional racism throughout the London police force and argued that all key agencies in society, including education, had a duty to identify and combat racism (including unintended and indirectly discriminatory actions). This paper examines the evidence of institutional racism in the English educational system and argues that the promotion of citizenship education, as a solution to this problem, acts as a placebo in terms of policy intentions and outcomes. Citizenship education is now a required component of the national curriculum that must be taught by all state funded schools in England. It is constantly highlighted by policy makers as a major innovation that promotes social cohesion in general, and race equality in particular. At the same time, however, the government has continued to pursue a so-called 'standards' agenda that emphasizes a hierarchy of schools based on their students' performance in high stakes tests and promotes increased selection that is known to disadvantage Black students. Consequently, the principal education policy strategies are themselves revealed as potentially racist by the government's own definition. It is in this context that the promotion of citizenship education can be seen as a public policy placebo, i.e. a pretend treatment for institutional racism that gives the impression of action but is, in fact, without substance or effect. Meanwhile, the excesses of racialized educational inequality not only continue, but in some cases worsen

Post-16 Curriculum and Qualifications Reform in England and Scotland: lessons from home international comparisons

In this article we compare Curriculum 2000 and Higher Still, recent reforms of post-16 education in England and Scotland respectively. We draw on current and earlier research on the unification of academic and vocational learning in England, Scotland and other European countries in order to suggest areas for mutual learning to inform future curriculum and qualifications reform north and south of the Border. We highlight five of these - the conduct of the policy process, issues of progression, assessment, approaches to vocational education and key/core skills. In our conclusion we speculate on the possibility of either convergence or divergence of the English and Scottish upper secondary education systems as both evolve

The Inclusion of Pupils with Special Educational Needs: A Study of the Formulation and Implementation of the National Curriculum Physical Education in Britain

The paper examines the planned and unplanned outcomes associated with the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in the National Curriculum Physical Education (NCPE) in Britain. This involves the use of key concepts from figurational sociology, and documentary analysis, to examine the emergence of disability as a social issue in British society and in secondary school education. Norbert Elias’ game models (Elias, 1978) are then used to analyse the NCPE 1992, 1995 and 2000 documents, and their associated consultation materials. This allows the researcher to identify all the major players involved in the formulation of the NCPEs, and the extent to which the objectives of each player, and their subsequent power struggles with each other, impacted upon the overall objectives and content of the NCPEs. The game models are then used to examine the extent to which the objectives of the players involved in the implementation of the NCPE generated outcomes which none of the players planned for, or could have foreseen

Key skills for all? The Key Skills Qualification and Curriculum 2000

It is widely recognised that the Key Skills Qualification, an important component of the Curriculum 2000 advanced level curriculum reforms has experienced extensive problems during its first full year of implementation. This much is not in dispute. What is being keenly debated, however, are the ways in which this experience should be analysed and what lessons should be drawn. Is it a case of understandable ‘teething problems’ which will be overcome as the qualification ‘beds in’ or are there deeper and more fundamental problems of the purpose and design of the Key Skills Qualification for advanced level students? In order to address these questions, this article examines the Key Skills Qualification within its historical and policy context as well as bringing together a range of quantitative and qualitative evidence gathered as part of an Institute of Education (IOE)/Nuffield Foundation Research Project. The research suggests that while there is support for the concept of key skills, the Qualification has been met with considerable student and professional resistance due to its narrow skills focus and assessment regime within the context of increased study programmes at advanced level. We conclude that the Government's aim of 'key skills for all' at advanced level is unlikely to be achieved unless it takes a fundamentally different approach to policy in this area

Raising Student Achievement Levels Through Target-setting and Academic Monitoring: A Case Study of Developments at Key Stage 3 in a Secondary School

Evidence for the conclusions and recommendations are based on interviews with tutors and students from Year 8 conducted by the Head of Year, who then provides an overview from her perspective. The findings are contrasted against the examples of effective target-setting provided by the DfEE Standards and Effectiveness Unit (DfEE, 1998b) and the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted, 1996). The new scheme is also reviewed in the light of the call for equal opportunities by, amongst others, the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE, 1998c) and against the body of evidence provided by the research on school improvement (e.g. Stoll and Mortimore, 1995; Creemers, 1997

Learning to Teach About Ideas and Evidence in Science : The Student Teacher as Change Agent

A collaborative curriculum development project was set up to address the lack of good examples of teaching about ideas and evidence and the nature of science encountered by student teachers training to teach in the age range 11-16 in schools in England. Student and teacher-mentor pairs devised, taught and evaluated novel lessons and approaches. The project design required increasing levels of critique through cycles of teaching, evaluation and revision of lessons. Data were gathered from interviews and students' reports to assess the impact of the project on student teachers and to what extent any influences survived when they gained their first teaching posts. A significant outcome was the perception of teaching shifting from the delivery of standard lessons in prescribed ways to endeavours demanding creativity and decision-making. Although school-based factors limited newly qualified teachers' chances to use new lessons and approaches and therefore act as change-agents in schools, the ability to critique curriculum materials and the recognition of the need to create space for professional dialogue were durable gains

What, why and how–the policy, purpose and practice of grammatical terminology

© 2018, © 2018 National Association for the Teaching of English. This article critically examines the literature around grammar and grammatical terminology. It is essentially a critical consideration of the debates in England and Wales in four main parts. Part 1 considers debates in policy, the “What”, i.e. grammatical terminology from the perspective of national policy as defined by the English National Curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2, and the Key Stage 2 “Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Test”. Part 2, Debates in Purpose, examines the “Why”: it views grammatical terminology through a more theoretical lens which considers the potential purpose and value of explicit grammatical terminology in the classroom. Part 3 touches upon Debates in Practice, the “How”, examining what is already understood about the teaching of grammatical terminology in terms of grammar pedagogy, language acquisition and word learning. While each part has a distinct focus, the field is complex with overlap and interrelated issues. The final part looks briefly at teacher and pupil perspectives