Curriculum In England Research Articles

Restorative Pedagogy in the University Criminology Classroom: Learning about Restorative Justice with Restorative Practices and Values

This paper explores the use of restorative practices and values to facilitate teaching and learning regarding restorative justice in undergraduate criminology curricula in England and Wales. Applications of restorative practice, inside and outside of criminal justice contexts, continue to progress and strengthen in the UK and internationally. Similarly, the provision of undergraduate criminology programmes at universities in England and Wales, and globally, has increased substantially in recent decades. Yet, limited research has been conducted regarding the way restorative justice is taught at universities, particularly in a UK higher education context. This paper draws on research which set out to examine the extent and form of restorative justice knowledge production and exclusion, in undergraduate criminology programmes in England and Wales. In doing so, the innovative and effective use of restorative practice pedagogically was exposed. Evidence presented in this paper was collected via seven semi-structured interviews with criminology academics working at six different universities, and three focus groups with undergraduate criminology students, each at a different university. By exploring perspectives of academics and students regarding the use of restorative practices and values to support teaching and learning about restorative justice, this paper argues that real-world contextualisation, collaboration, and experiential learning are key elements of restorative pedagogy within undergraduate criminology.

A health(y) subject? Examining discourses of health in physical education curricula across the UK

AbstractIn this paper, we present the findings from our critical analysis of the health discourses evident with physical education (PE) curricula in each UK home nation—England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We carried out a critical discourse analysis of those curriculum documents that talk directly to PE teachers about how to organise, enact and assess PE curricula in schools. The results from our analysis uncovered that, with the exception of the curriculum in England, all PE curricula conceptualise health and wellbeing holistically. However, our analysis also uncovered complex health landscapes within curricula, where discourses move from notions of supporting and enabling pupil health and wellbeing towards a more concrete (and measurable) concept of health‐related learning, often associated with public health goals of promoting physical activity. Furthermore, although the public health discourses are presented in a way that suggests that young people will develop knowledge and skills to support their health, closer scrutiny reveals that they may be more associated with discourses of risk, promoting ‘healthy’ behaviours to avoid ‘ill health’. We conclude by suggesting that PE teachers need to develop a critical understanding of the health discourses within their PE curriculum. This will help them to navigate, interpret and enact curricula in an informed way, enabling them to challenge discourses that are deficit in nature, where pupils are taught how to be healthy, rather than having the freedom to learn about themselves and their health.

The Genealogy of ‘Cultural Literacy’

ABSTRACT The British government's current educational policy for England draws on E.D. Hirsch's writings on 'cultural literacy'. This paper aims to uncover the roots of Hirsch’s influential views through a genealogical critique. Hirsch admired the Scottish Enlightenment educator Hugh Blair as a model architect of a hegemonic culture to unite disparate members of a nation. Following Hirsch, the government Department for Education in England called for ‘shared appreciation of cultural reference points’ and ‘a common stock of knowledge on which all can draw and trade’. Consequently, the literature curriculum in England increasingly disenfranchises a significant component of the population in terms of both gender and cultural heritage. Recent ‘culture wars’ have highlighted the legacy of colonialism and have led educators to decolonise the curriculum and prioritise social justice. Continuing racism within civil society demonstrates the need for a general recognition that cultures are desirably diverse and internally plural.

How far did the toppling of the Colston statue in 2020 impact upon primary history subject-leaders’ curriculum decision-making in North-West England?

ABSTRACT This is a qualitative research study which investigates the curriculum decision-making of four primary school history subject-leaders in the North-West of England. A grounded theory approach was utilised. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the subject-leaders and an audit of their schools’ history curriculum completed. The curriculum was altered in response to the Colston statue toppling in three schools, the subject-leaders faced several challenges. Further research is needed to discover more about the role of primary history subject-leaders and the agency they can achieve as curriculum-makers. It is also argued that Black British history should be included in the History National Curriculum for England.

Pattern in early years mathematics curriculum: a 25-year review of the status, positioning and conception of pattern in England

ABSTRACT Pattern is fundamental to mathematical learning yet pattern has been conspicuously low key within early mathematics curriculum guidance in England despite evidence that it predicts later attainment in mathematics overall. Whilst recent curriculum changes have seen pattern afforded enhanced status, this is within a conception of pattern that marks a significant shift away from the evidence base. Through analysis of 25 years of early mathematics curriculum in England, this article identifies a curriculum landscape where pattern has been afforded little attention and narrowly framed. It finds that positioning pattern as a minor topic in mathematics potentially limits children’s access to “powerful knowledge”, in a critical realist sense, and to learning which is fundamental to deep, connected mathematical understanding. Recognition of pattern as powerful knowledge would position it as an essential, broad, central tenet of early childhood mathematics education and as an entitlement at the heart of national curricula.

Ready for Relationships Education? Primary school children’s responses to a Healthy Relationships programme in England

ABSTRACT Children’s experience of harm and abuse has a profound impact on their health and well-being. In response, school-based prevention programmes have been developed and delivered by external organisations with the aim of improving children’s awareness and understanding of forms of harm and abuse which may affect them, encouraging them to seek help if needed. In September 2020, Relationships Education became statutory within the primary school curriculum in England and this ratification is likely to increase demand for externally delivered classroom-based programmes, which address the broad range of topics to be covered within this field. However, evidence is required to understand the impact and acceptability of such programmes. This paper presents qualitative findings from a larger mixed-methods study. Focus group discussions with 29 children explored their responses to one Healthy Relationships programme delivered to primary school children aged 10 and 11 in England. Analysis focuses specifically on responses to the topics of sexual abuse prevention and help-seeking. Children’s widespread support for the programme indicates that topics are relevant and the opportunity to explore these issues is valued. However, for effective programme implementation, schools and parents need to be prepared, and prevention messages should continue to be embedded throughout children’s school lives.

Foreign language education policies at secondary school level in England and Germany: an international comparison

ABSTRACT International comparative curriculum research is becoming more important in a globalised world. However, up-to-date comparative studies of international foreign language education policies are still rare. This study compares current modern foreign language curricula in England with that in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia in Germany at Key Stage 4 and equivalent, to identify points of convergence and divergence in learning intentions. The analysis shows systematic differences and similarities regarding philosophical underpinning, learning goals, curriculum content and the level of alignment to international frameworks for teaching, learning and assessing foreign language proficiency. The paper discusses the findings with reference to the implications for the development of modern foreign languages teaching and learning in both educational settings.

Why is ‘powerful knowledge’ failing to forge a path to the future of history education?

The concept of ‘powerful knowledge’ has become extremely influential in discussions about curriculum in England over the last ten years. However, the concept seems to have done little to revolutionise curriculum design, and in some cases it has led to curricular narrowing and a focus on an increasingly nationalistic narrative in history. Michael Young (2019, 2021) has argued that the failure of the concept of ‘powerful knowledge’ to underpin meaningful curriculum reforms has been mainly due to its misinterpretation and loose definition. This paper explores these claims and finds that key voices in education in England, and history education specifically, have misunderstood and misapplied the concept of powerful knowledge. However, it also makes the case that powerful knowledge cannot be meaningfully defined in terms of history education, and that attempts to make curricular decisions based on the concept are therefore a distraction from more meaningful curricular work.

Contact-based interfaith programmes in schools and the changing religious education landscape: negotiating a worldviews curriculum

ABSTRACT This article explores the implications of a proposed move towards a religion and worldviews curriculum in England for contact-based interfaith programmes in schools, through a case study of the Faith and Belief Forum’s School Linking programme. Quantitative and qualitative data collected through 1,488 teacher and student surveys, teacher focus groups and participant observation in schools reveal that despite students reporting an increase in religious knowledge after taking part in School Linking, the type of knowledge gained does not accurately capture the religious and worldview plurality of the programme’s participants. In positioning School Linking’s theoretical underpinnings of intergroup contact theory as driving this issue, the article proposes an alternative theoretical grounding for interfaith programmes in schools, the ‘decategorization’ model of contact. Interfaith programmes as communicated through decategorization ensures that such extra-curricular activities explore religious and non-religious worldviews in their complexity and complement students’ learning developed through a religion and worldviews curriculum.

The views of teachers in England on an action-oriented climate change curriculum

To inform current debate around climate change education (CCE) in the school curriculum in England, we surveyed the views of primary and secondary teachers (N = 626). In England, direct reference to climate change in the National Curriculum is confined to secondary Science and Geography but, unrelated to their subject area, teachers favoured a cross-curricular approach with most already communicating to their students about it. Feeling comfortable delivering CCE was correlated with reported resource availability, with most teachers considering only basic literacy was a greater funding priority. Teachers supported an action-based CCE curriculum including issues of global social justice, beginning in primary school with mitigation projects such as conservation, local tree-planting and family advocacy. Local campaigning (e.g. legal demonstration) was considered appropriate around the primary/secondary transition, with most supporting inclusion of civil disobedience but indicating this should begin at secondary school (11+ years). Results are compared with a 2018 poll of US teachers.

Intentional, tacit, contingent: knowledge recontextualization in the official History curriculum - a Critical Discourse Analysis

ABSTRACT This paper reports a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) exploring the nature, causes and epistemic effects of knowledge recontextualization in the ‘official’ Key Stage Five History curriculum in England. “Recontextualization” refers to inevitable changes that occur to knowledge as it is ‘pedagogized’, due to the value-laden practices and contexts which enact and shape curriculum-making. Five accredited examination specifications and three ‘generative’ policy documents were analysed using Fairclough’s methods and interpreted through a Bernsteinian theoretic lens. Five problematic forms of knowledge recontextualization will be discussed: canonization; commodification; de-diversification; knowledge made static; and epistemic inconsistency. The application of CDA to everyday ‘official’ curriculum artefacts illuminates the role of micro-level ‘language-in use’ in bringing particular constructions of subject knowledge into being. It is suggested that not all these recontextualizations were intentional, nor fully explainable through macro and meso structural factors. Some had been enacted ‘by accident’ in the contingencies of fragmented and negotiated local practice. Epistemic and discursive ‘literacies’ are suggested as key to engendering agentic practice within the official curriculum-making community, as well as enabling teachers to select and pedagogically mediate specifications in line with local epistemic aims.

Vocabulary loading in the Studio textbook series: a 40% decline in the vocabulary input for French GCSE

ABSTRACT The vocabulary content of the French MFL curriculum in England has received criticism (Häcker, M. 2008. Eleven pets and 20 ways to express one’s opinion: the vocabulary learners of German acquire at English secondary schools. The Language Learning Journal 36, no. 2: 215–26; Tschichold, C. 2012. French vocabulary in Encore Tricolore: do learners have a chance? The Language Learning Journal 40, no. 1: 7–19) for its small size, lack of thematic variety, and poor pedagogical exploitation in textbooks. Studies also note the small vocabulary knowledge of learners in UK compared with other French learners, ostensibly at the same CEFR B1 level (David, A. 2008. Vocabulary breadth in French L2 learners. The Language Learning Journal 36, no. 2: 167–80; Milton, J. 2006b. Language lite: learning French vocabulary in school. Journal of French Language Studies 16, no. 2: 187–205). This study examines the vocabulary content of the Studio series of French textbooks, first published in 2010, to see whether this situation has improved. Analysis shows the vocabulary loading of the textbooks has fallen over 40% compared with the previous books analysed by Tschichold (2012. French vocabulary in Encore Tricolore: do learners have a chance? The Language Learning Journal 40, no. 1: 7–19). This indicates a significant decline in the standard of learning for GCSE French since the vocabulary size of learners is so closely associated with their overall language proficiency. There are problems too with the thematic variety of teaching, the regularity of input, and the recycling of the lexical content. We argue this results from the guidance of advisory bodies such as the National Centre for Excellence for Language Pedagogy (NCELP) and the latest curriculum design (Department for Education. 2015. Modern Foreign Languages GCSE Subject Content. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/485567/GCSE_subject_content_modern_foreign_langs.pdf (accessed 30 August, 2020)) MFL subject content so there is no clear standard for textbook writers to work to. Further, the guidance of advisory bodies such as the National Centre for Excellence for Language Pedagogy (NCELP) and the latest curriculum design (Department for Education. 2021. GCSE MFL Subject Content Review. https://consult.education.gov.uk/ebacc-and-arts-and-humanities-team/gcse-mfl-subject-content-review/supporting_documents/GCSE%20MFL%20subject%20content%20document.pdf (accessed 14 March, 2021)), which damage standards of attainment in MFL by advocating minimal vocabulary content and a departure from thematic input.

Local Content Curriculum Model for Early Childhood Scientific Learning

Curriculum material is generally considered the subject matter of information, talents, dispositions, understandings, and principles that make up research programs in the field. At a more complex level, the curricula need to contain historical and socio-political strengths, traditions, cultural views, and goals with wide differences in sovereignty, adaptation, and local understanding that encompass a diversity of cultures, laws, metaphysics, and political discourse This study aims to develop a curriculum with local content as a new approach in early childhood science learning. The Local Content Curriculum (LCC) is compiled and developed to preserve the uniqueness of local culture, natural environment, and community crafts for early childhood teachers so that they can introduce local content to early childhood. Research and model development combines the design of the Dick-Carey and Dabbagh models with qualitative and quantitative descriptive analysis. The results showed that local content curriculum products can be supplemented into early childhood curricula in institutions according to local conditions. Curricula with local content can be used as a reinforcement for the introduction of science in early childhood. The research implication demands the concern of all stakeholders to see that the introduction of local content is very important to be given from an early age, so that children know, get used to, like, maintain, and love local wealth from an early age.
 Keywords: Early Childhood, Scientific Learning, Local Content Curriculum Model

Embracing Arts curricula as integral for children’s wellbeing

ABSTRACT Internationally, research documents a link between children’s creative engagement in Arts and their experiences of positive wellbeing. Yet this is at odds with both the provision of Arts curricula in England’s education system (which continues to decline including substantial cuts to resources and staff), and longitudinal research reporting a decrease in children’s wellbeing. In this article, the authors present findings from a qualitative study conducted as part of a mixed methods project in a Secondary school in England exploring how performing arts curricula (dance, drama and music: ‘PA’) nurture pupils’ hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing. 11 pupils (aged 11–16) engaged in participatory creative projects as a means of expressing their PA experiences. Their projects served as a springboard for in-depth individual interviews. Thematic analysis revealed that Arts curricula are uniquely need-facilitating environments that nurture pupils’ wellbeing in school. Pupils’ experiences suggest that PA curricula positively impacted their eudaimonic wellbeing, satisfying their innate psychological needs of relatedness, autonomy and competence, as theorised in Self-Determination Theory. Pupils’ experiences also underlined the benefits of Arts engagement for their hedonic wellbeing, including increased positive affect and providing a space for regulating emotions. Collectively, the qualitative and quantitative findings from this mixed methods project suggest some pupils engaged in PA are vulnerable, and Arts play a critical role in facilitating their wellbeing. The positive implications of retaining Arts curricula, versus the potential damage to pupils’ wellbeing and wider engagement with school caused by continuing to devalue Arts, is discussed.

Decolonising the science curriculum in England: Bringing decolonial science and technology studies to secondary education

Recent ‘decolonising the curriculum’ movements have called for Higher Education to rethink how it engages with diversity and colonialism in its lectures and syllabi. But what can these ideas mean for science subjects in secondary schools? Grounded on a decolonial perspective around the Science and Technology Studies (STS) field, this paper explores the implications from decolonial perspectives for school science by addressing the following questions: how can science teachers decolonise mainstream science curricula such as the National Curriculum in England with inputs from the STS field? And, what can this endeavour bring to the teaching and learning of science? To support this investigation, a collaborative curriculum development endeavour with a science teacher at a comprehensive school in London/United Kingdom is explored. This experience involved planning and teaching four science topics from the National Curriculum in England to a year 8 classroom (students aged 12–13) and a qualitative investigation was carried out through interviews, observations and informal conversations over the school year. Findings reveal that rather than competing for space in an already overcrowded curriculum, decolonial ideas can help teachers to enrich and better integrate different science topics, while also addressing contemporary concerns about critical thinking and representativeness in (science) education.

“It's a lot of people in different places working on many ideas”: Possibilities from global history of science to Learning about nature of science

AbstractThis article describes a teaching experience at an year 8 classroom (students aged 12–13) in a state secondary school in London, UK that aimed at widening learning about nature of science (NOS) with the input from the field of Global History of Science (HOS), which looks at science as a product of material and cognitive exchanges, appropriations and collaborations. Teaching and learning plans (TLPs) informed by this historical framework were developed by the researcher and one science teacher to integrate NOS teaching into fours topics from the national science curriculum in England (Medicines, Magnetism, Evolution, and Earth's resources). These TLPs were taught by the participant teacher to his year 8 classroom (26 boys and girls of mixed‐abilities) throughout one school year, and the researcher investigated the impact of the global HOS framework on widening students' views about NOS. Data were collated with the help of students' NOS diaries, group mind maps, classroom observations, and an open‐ended NOS questionnaire applied at the start and end of the school year, complemented by participant students' grades in their end‐of‐year exam. Main findings point to the widening of participant students' views about NOS and, more specifically, about underexplored relevant social‐institutional aspects of scientific development, such as diversity and intercultural collaborations and exchanges, exploitation of natural resources, financial, ethical, and political aspects around scientific work. Students were also generally successful in re‐applying NOS ideas explored in one TLP to other TLPs and scientific contexts, hinting to the importance of employing overarching narratives (such those promoted by Global HOS), linking different scientific development, when planning the integration of NOS into the school science. Results also show that NOS was integrated into content teaching without negative effects in students' exam grades.

Does RE still matter?

The role which subject Religious Education (RE) plays in promoting religious literacy matters in my view, acknowledging that I am biased in my judgement, as my professional raison d’etre, thus livelihood, rests on it continuing. However, others similarly are biased, whether from a specific moral and religious or ideological perspective or their academic positioning. Given whether subject RE exists in schools, or not, is a normative affair. I re-visit an established philosophical discussion of possible justifiable aims for compulsory RE in schools considering these reasons in turn, with particular reference to the RE curriculum in England and South Africa. Resisting the urge to identify one over-riding aim for RE, for reasons I explain, I suggest all three of these potentially justifiable reasons can be seen to inter-relate and reflect on whether they might be re-considered more broadly and used to strengthen more recent theoretical work concerned with studying religion in inter-disciplinary ways which promote religious and related ‘literacies’? On the understanding of RE I seek to develop, the implications for teacher education and continuing professional development would be significant but worthwhile, I conclude, if RE is to be promoted as an entitlement which is taught well and adequately resourced to contribute to the flourishing of many children and young people.

Critical discussion of citizenship curriculum in England and Taiwan to redirect citizenship education in Korea

Critical discussion of citizenship curriculum in England and Taiwan to redirect citizenship education in Korea

Physical education’s journey on the road to health

ABSTRACT Each year, the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy Special Interest Group organises an Invisible College which precedes the annual BERA conference. The day opens with a Scholar Lecture which is delivered by an academic who has made a significant contribution to the field. This paper represents the 2019 Scholar Lecture, which charts the journey of health within physical education over recent decades through to the present day. Whilst the notion of maintaining health through physical education is long standing and contributing to healthy active lifestyles is generally accepted to be a key goal of the subject, it is argued that the road to securing and retaining the position of health within the curriculum has at times been tricky to navigate. There have certainly been many successes en route, but equally some challenges and seemingly even a few obstacles and diversions. Specifically, this paper outlines the journey of health from the 1980s, during which time there was revived interest in health and a significant growth in health-related courses within physical education curricula within and beyond the United Kingdom. This coincided with the introduction of the National Curriculum in England and Wales, as well as with my own doctoral studies and initial physical education practice. Consequently, I highlight key influences and influencers in the area and on my thinking during this period, as well as some of the key developments, outcomes and messages emanating from this early work. Equally, I explore some of the issues and challenges health and health-related learning within physical education have and continue to face. The paper then turns to focus on recent progress and positive developments in the area and concludes with some proposed future directions for research and practice and reflections on the next leg of the journey for health within physical education.

All the Nines: Creativity in English Curricula in England in 1919, 1989 and 2019 as a Reflection of Britain’s Place in Europe

ABSTRACT Just after the First World War the English Association published The Teaching of English in Schools. It argues that developing children’s ‘creative spirit’ is fundamental to maintaining peace in Europe. Seventy years later, the first National Curriculum promotes a creative, unitary English appropriate for ‘a European context’. In contrast, today’s national curriculum contains no reference to the role of English in international relations; simultaneously, all references to creativity have disappeared. As Britain struggles to cope with the fallout from Brexit, this paper – written from a hermeneutic perspective – discusses the correlation between how each of the three documents positions English in an international context and how they value creativity. Without wishing to over–simplify complex issues, it questions how to what extent a curriculum might echo or shape national politics. It calls for a new curriculum that embraces a creative, internationalist view of English to inspire communities of the future.