麻豆传媒AV

Citation

Smith J & Priestley M (2024) The ecology of curriculum policy: a tale of two curricula... and a more meaningful approach to understanding curriculum. In: Morris R & Perry T (eds.) Education Policy in England 2010-2024. Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003528661/education-policy-england-2010-2024-rebecca-morris-tom-perry

Abstract
The most recent iteration of England’s National Curriculum was published in September 2013, promising it would ‘give children and parents a better guarantee that every student will acquire the knowledge and skills to succeed in the modern world’. In its emphasis on ‘a core of essential knowledge in key subjects’, the document cemented a particular view of curriculum in England’s schools as an entitlement to knowledge, prioritised over contextual and pedagogical considerations. This approach sits in contradistinction to the competency-based curricula, prevalent worldwide and found in various forms in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Debates about which is the ‘correct’ approach have been characterised by polarised and often spurious dichotomies, for example ‘knowledge/skills’, ‘traditional/progressive’, and ‘teacher/facilitator’, that have come to permeate recent educational discourse. This chapter adopts a very different definition of curriculum as the multi-layered social practices through which education is planned, developed, enacted and evaluated across the multiple contexts that comprise educational systems. In doing so, it posits a purposes-led approach to curriculum making. Existing debates have created an artificial distinction between curriculum and pedagogy, which can lead to a loss of coherence in educational practice. Conversely, the chapter makes the case that attention to educational purpose, combined with a social practice conception of curriculum, can lead to coherent and balanced provision.