Agentic neglect: Teachers as gatekeepers of England’s national computing curriculum

Abstract

AbstractThe addition of computing to England’s National Curriculum was welcomed as a much‐needed modernization of the country’s digital skills curriculum, replacing a poorly regarded ICT program of study with an industry‐supported scheme of computer science, robotics and computational thinking. This paper will demonstrate how teachers have acted as gatekeepers to block a curriculum that they view as narrow, difficult to teach and in conflict with their beliefs and practices as educational professionals. Extensive qualitative data were collected through classroom observations, teacher and student interviews and student artifact creation in four state‐maintained primary school classrooms to explore how teachers acted agentically to minimize or altogether reject a legally mandated curriculum that clashed with their local, professional knowledge. Analysis of this data was supported by official documents and personal accounts of the creation of the computing program of study, which highlight a discourse of economic anxiety and post‐imperialist nostalgia on the part of the curriculum’s designers. This study will illuminate the significant influence that teachers wield as gatekeepers for subject content, with the ability to reject digital technology curricula even when it is supported by industry and mandated by law.