'There be dragons': redrawing the curriculum map in Wales

First paragraph: The 2015 publication of Successful Futures marked a watershed moment in the history of education in Wales. The proposed new curriculum is a radical departure from recent top-down, teacher proof policy. It moves schools away from prescriptive content-led approaches to teaching, and affords teachers and schools considerable autonomy in developing a school-based curriculum to meet local needs.Output Type: Blog Pos

The social practices of curriculum making

This thesis is concerned with the ‘problem’ of change in education, an issue characterised in much of the literature as a paradox of innovation without change. The thesis draws upon school-based empirical research, undertaken in the context of the reactions by Geography, History and Modern Studies teachers to the notion of teaching integrated social subjects, set against the wider framework of the Scottish Executive’s curriculum policy. The thesis first sets the topic in its Scottish and wider context, before undertaking a comprehensive review of the themes that emerge from the worldwide literature on educational change. These include the paradox of innovation without change, teacher mediation of change initiatives, departmental and school cultures, the subject centredness of schooling and factors that have been noted to underpin successful change initiatives. The thesis sets out a theoretical position that draws upon the critical realist social theory of Margaret Archer. This approach posits a centrist approach to the contentious structure/agency debate, suggesting a complex relationship between social structures, cultural forms and individual agency, whereby social reproduction and transformation are played out through continual social interaction. From this foundation of theory, I develop a practical methodology for researching change in school settings. My empirical work consists of a questionnaire sent to 100 schools, and two linked case studies, where data was collected through semi-structured interviews, observations and analysis of school documents. The research identifies trends in school provision and, through the case studies, the processes of curriculum making are investigated using the aforementioned methodology. The thesis concludes that such processes are ineluctably social practices, and that those seeking to innovate in schools should pay attention to the social dimensions of change – the engagement of people with ideas and the social structures that impede, distort or promote change. The thesis concludes by presenting a set of general principles that might serve to facilitate change promoted by future initiatives

Curriculum regulation in Scotland: A wolf in sheep’s clothing is still a wolf

Following political devolution in 1999, Scotland’s already distinctive education system has diverged further from the rest of the United Kingdom. A major trend has been a weakening of input regulation of the school curriculum. Scotland’s recently developed Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) has been predicated upon notions of curricular flexibility, local autonomy and school-based curriculum development. Ostensibly Scotland has entered a new era of curricular autonomy for schools and teachers. However, while Scotland has escaped some of the worst excesses of England’s marketised approaches to regulating outputs, the new curriculum has been accompanied by high levels of output regulation – most notably the recourse to external inspections and the use of attainment data to judge of the effectiveness of schools – which reduce school autonomy. Although there have been recent attempts to soften this approach in line with the spirit of CfE, it is evident that such methods for accountability exert an effect on schools, contributing to cultures of performativity, creating perverse incentives and potentially distorting educational decision making in schools. In this paper, I examine the balance between input and output regulation, considering how the current balance in Scotland impacts upon teacher agency, and especially the capacity of teachers to undertake school-based curriculum development

Disability, values and quality : a case study in Derbyshire

Cultural representations of disability reveal a cultural value system which characterises the disadvantage experienced by disabled people in terms of personal tragedy, the impaired body and otherness. The reproduction of these disabling values in the dominant discourses of British policy making have resulted in a mode of welfare production based on 'care', individualism and segregation. More recently, implementation of the 1990 NHS and Community Care Act has tended to consolidate rather than challenge this policy tradition. By contrast, the emergence of a strong disabled peoples' movement offers significant forms of resistance to dominant policy discourses through the development of social models of disability. In particular, Centres for Independent/Integrated Living have promoted an alternative agenda for enabling community support systems based on the values of participation, social integration and equality. Disabled people's organisations in Derbyshire were at the forefront of these developments in Britain. Their attempts to implement integrated living solutions within the policy framework of community care demonstrate significant conflicts over the definition of quality in service processes and outcomes. The study employs co-participatory methods to involve local service users and disabled people's organisations in exploring these issues within an emancipatory research paradigm. The data from this research highlights specific barriers to policy change and suggests that effective self-organisation within a cohesive social movement is a necessary pre-requisite for the liberation of disabled people. Ultimately, the agenda for change promoted by the disabled peoples' movement challenges not only attitudes and values but also the social relations of production and reproduction within a capitalist economy

A perspective on learning outcomes in curriculum and assessment

First paragraph: Learning outcomes have become ubiquitous within worldwide curriculum policy in recent years. This move comes with many potential benefits, as it shifts the focus from providers to users of education, and it introduces a common language, addressing issues of progression, transparency and equity (CEDEFOP, 2009). To a large extent, they continue a long tradition of framing curriculum as aims and objectives. One can trace the genesis of the current fashion for defining learning as outcomes in the objectives movement in the United States (c.f. Bobbitt, Tyler, Bloom etc.), with its roots in Taylorist scientific management, and which became extremely popular in the 1960s. There are also clear lines of descent from the development of competency-based vocational education and training in the UK from the 1980s onwards, through the worldwide extension of this model to national academic qualifications (for example the Scottish, New Zealand and South African qualifications frameworks) in the 1990s (for a fuller account of this, see: Kelly, 2004; Biesta & Priestley, 2013). These developments have introduced a plethora of different – and often confusing and ambiguous – terms and concepts into the arena. They manifest a desire to provide preset definitions of what an educated person might know or do as a result of being educated. For example, according to CEDEFOP (2009), ‘learning outcomes can best be defined as statements of what a learner knows, understands and is able to do after completion of learning’ (p9). This definition clearly illustrates a distinction between outcomes and their predecessors: the shift towards framing education in terms of learners and their development, rather than in terms of what is to be taught. This is not a new distinction, as discussed by Biesta and Priestley (2013). However, it is one that has been given a renewed force by recent developments such as the publication of competency frameworks by organisations such as the OECD and the European Union, as well as by the emergence in the past few years of new approaches to defining national curricula

Curriculum 2000: a broader view

Curriculum 2000 was heralded as a long overdue reform of the post-sixteen curriculum in England. In particular, critics of the traditional A level school curriculum had long complained of the narrow focus of these qualifications. The initiative therefore sought to improve the breadth of study experienced by students, through the added inclusion of Key Skills to the curriculum and the institution of an additional tier of assessment in Year 12; this latter reform would, it was hoped, allow students to follow broader courses of study in Year 12 before specialising in Year 13. Curriculum 2000 also sought to bring together the academic and vocational tracks, through encouraging mix-and-match qualifications. In practice its first two years have been characterised by implementation problems, as examination boards, schools, teachers and students have struggled to come to terms with the new system. Recently these problems have received the full glare of publicity, contributing to a ministerial resignation, as the media has spotlighted the grading crisis of 2002. This paper examines the policy context of the reform before drawing on research findings to address a particular issue of relevance: whether Curriculum 2000 succeeds in its stated aim of increasing breadth of study

Making the most of the Curriculum Review: some reflections on supporting and sustaining change in schools

The 2004 review of Scotland’s school curriculum offers the potential for radical change in the education of young people, placing a greater emphasis than at present on learners and learning. If realised, it presents greater scope for innovative teaching, flexibility in provision, less overcrowding and a potential challenge to the entrenched subject paradigm in secondary education. This paper does not offer a critique of or even a detailed commentary on the Curriculum Review, the principles of which I broadly support. Instead it is concerned with the issue of sustainability. Despite the good intentions inherent in the review, fundamental curriculum change in Scotland may be no more than a chimera, blocked by the structural conservatism of the schooling system. The paper draws together some of the recent theoretical and empirical literature on curriculum change, examining some of the issues that may impact on this latest attempt to reform the curriculum and suggesting a model for change that may facilitate long lasting and deeply rooted change

Making a difference in your school: some perspectives from the research on curriculum change

First paragraph: A Curriculum for Excellence (ACfE) comes at a crucial time for Scotland's schools. It follows hard on the heels of the largely successful Assessment is for Learning (AifL) and signals a change in direction in terms of the priorities and structures of school education; this in my view offers a major opportunity for improving the educational prospects and life chances of many of our young people. The identification of the four purposes of the 3-18 curriculum (successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens, effective contributors) is radical in that these state the key underlying aims of education. This potentially highlights the processes of learning rather than, as has become all too common, the specification of narrow outcomes of attainment

Social Studies in Scotland’s school curriculum: a case for a more integrated approach

The fragmented approach to teaching geography, history and modern studies currently employed in Scottish secondary schools prevents links being made between these disciplines and limits quality learning time. Through exploration of the concept of curriculum integration and examination of its history in secondary school education in the United Kingdom, this article argues that there are no compelling reasons for subject separation. Indeed, the vitality of constituent subjects of social studies both in secondary school and higher education can be regarded as indicative of the success of an integrated approach. The article concludes with suggestions for progress in this area

In Britain’s battle over school curriculum, Celtic nations have got it right

First paragraph: Thenational curriculumintroduced by Margaret Thatcher’s governments in the 1980s was a seminal development in UK education history. Applying to England, Northern Ireland and Wales (but not Scotland, which has a tradition of educational independence), the move was highly controversial. With too much content and little flexibility on what could be taught, it was a teacher-proof curriculum that was widely decried by education experts as badly thought out and damaging to young people. Such criticisms seemed borne out, as it was reviewed and revisedthroughout the 1990s