Examples of capabilities: being able to imagine, use the senses, think and reason being able to form a conception of the good and to plan one’s life accordingly being able to show concern for others, to empathise and to live successfully with others being able participate effectively in political choices, with free speech and association [after Nussbaum 1993] David Lambert UCL IOE

School Geography in England Some key devlopments (during my professional life) The idea of ‘curriculum development’ is established. The uneasy relationship between ‘geography’ and ‘education’ intensifies: - The growth of progressive ‘child centredness’ - The advent of curriculum theory (and subject ‘integration’) - The re-assertion of ‘good causes’ Marsden, B. (1997) ‘On Taking the Geography Out of Geographical Education’ Geography, 82, 3, pp. 241–52

Geographical Association ‘Manifesto’ [2009] Reasons Growing ‘genericism’ in the curriculum Skills rather than knowledge Learning rather than teaching Themes/issues rather than subjects Political influences on the curriculum Citizenship? Sustainability? Contents The subject resource Thinking geographically Living geography Exploration and enquiry Real world fieldwork Young people’s geographies Curriculum Making animoto_video short.mp4

School Geography in England In recent years NC revised: simplified and to focus only on the ‘core knowledge’ of academic subjects Less concern with skills and competences; more concern with ‘academic rigour’ English Baccalaureate: Eng, Ma, Sc, Lang and either history or geography Content-led national criteria for GCSE and reformed A levels (with ‘content advisory boards’) State funded academies (and ‘free schools’) no longer have to follow the NC Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove ( )

Curriculum Futures (Young and Muller 2010) F1 subject delivery – of knowledge for its own sake; traditional subjects: under-socialised knowledge F2 skills and ‘learning to learn’ – knowledge is constructed: over-socialised knowledge; subject divisions are artificial. Themes. Experiential. F3 subjects are not given (as in F1), but not arbitrary either (as in F2) – knowledge development led by ‘... the epistemic rules of specialist communities’ to provide ways to understand the world and take pupils beyond their everyday experience.

Powerful Disciplinary Knowledge [PDK]? PDK is usually: evidence based abstract and theoretical (conceptual) part of a system of thought dynamic, evolving, changing – but reliable testable and open to challenge sometimes counter-intuitive exists outside the direct experience of the teacher and the learner Discipline based (in domains that are not arbitary or transient) It enables societies to think the ‘unthinkable’ and the ‘yet- to-be-thought’

White Paper: The Importance of Teaching.... and ‘core knowledge’ (2010) ‘The National Curriculum should set out clearly the core knowledge and understanding that all children should be expected to acquire in the course of their schooling. (para 4.7) Does this imply F1?

White Paper: The Importance of Teaching.... and ‘core knowledge’ ‘The National Curriculum should set out clearly the core knowledge and understanding that all children should be expected to acquire in the course of their schooling. (para 4.7) Does this imply F1? Or F3?

Back to the fundamental question (again) What is school geography for? The world beyond experience Concepts and theories (‘systematicity’) Disciplined communities All young people should have access to geographical knowledge, and to encounter the world as an object of disciplined thought ‘... to think the unthinkable and the not-yet-thought’ (after Bernstein 2000)

Curriculum Making in Geography Student Experiences School Geography Teacher Choices Underpinned by Key Concepts Thinking Geographically Which learning activity ? Does this take the learner beyond what they already know ? In the context of the discipline of geography