1. Contrasting approaches to the curriculum
Curriculum Studies - Session 4

2. Curriculum Studies - Session 4
Two settings …
… A Statutory Curriculum
(NC England)
… An Alternative View
(Programmes from the IB and Fieldwork)
Curriculum Studies - Session 4

3. The English National Curriculum – 1989-today
What happened before 1989?
Why 1989?
What were the principles?
What was the ‘content’?
How was it implemented?
Curriculum Studies - Session 4

4. Curriculum Studies - Session 4
What happened before 1989?
Religious Education only statutory subject (1944 Education Act)
Responsibility for curriculum with Local Education Authorities
LEAs offer advice and guidance but largely delegate to schools
Schools make varying use of published schemes, curriculum projects, textbooks or ‘do their own thing’
Examination boards largely ‘control’ secondary curriculum
Curriculum Studies - Session 4

5. Curriculum Studies - Session 4
Why 1989?
The ‘Great Debate’ 1980s
Concern about UK losing its place in the world economy
Political climate encouraged ‘grasping the nettle’
Opportunity to take control but with the rhetoric of improving quality
Curriculum Studies - Session 4

6. What were the principles?
Return to classical humanist/technicist values
Re-assertion of ‘subjects’
Objectives-driven
Performance orientation
Central control
Curriculum Studies - Session 4

7. Curriculum Studies - Session 4
What was the content?
Core subjects
Other foundation subjects
‘Cross curricular themes’
Curriculum Studies - Session 4

8. Curriculum Studies - Session 4
Education Reform Act 1988
Aims:
[to] promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society
[and to] prepare such pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life.
Curriculum Studies - Session 4

9. Curriculum Studies - Session 4
How was it implemented?
The ring binder curriculum!
No phased introduction
Some in-service training
Belated ‘non-statutory’ guidance
Curriculum Studies - Session 4

10. Curriculum Studies - Session 4
Twenty five years on
Several reviews and revisions
(‘slimming down’)
The ‘National Strategy’
(focus on literacy and numeracy in primary)
Changes to statutory tests (SATs)
Rose Review & beyond
[Cambridge Primary Review (CPR!)]
Current version (England)
Wales
Northern Ireland
Scotland!
Curriculum Studies - Session 4

11. Curriculum Studies - Session 4
An Alternative View
IB programmes
Fieldwork
Other examples?
Curriculum Studies - Session 4