A school curriculum is intended to provide children and young people with the knowledge and skills required to lead successful lives. Today, there is growing concern that the taught curriculum needs to be reconsidered and redesigned. This is reflected in a House of Commons inquiry into the National Curriculum which has concluded that it is too prescribed, incoherently arranged, and overloaded with content.
The use of the word ‘innovation’ in discussions about the school curriculum and classroom teaching practice has become widespread. It is the keyword in much policymaking across all public services.
What is a curriculum for at this time? It comprises a challenging selection of subjects that help children and young people understand the world. It highlights skills necessary for learning throughout life, as well as for work, and for one’s personal development and well-being. But a curriculum is also political. Decisions about ‘what’s in’ and ‘what’s out’ change from time to time depending on political needs and aspirations. A curriculum fundamentally establishes a vision of the kind of society we want in the future, and the kind of people we want in it: it decides what the ‘good life’ is for individuals and for society as a whole. As such, it’s not always possible for everyone to agree on what a curriculum should be.
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