ED4001: lecture 4Curriculum

What ought we teach in schools? What is taught in schools? Knowledge and subjects:

What are the most important subjects? Are subjects the most important things?

Conclusion: The curriculum can be a reflection of

a dominant culture and is therefore highly contested

What ought we teach in schools?If education is for…

Compulsory subjects Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts,

Charms, Potions, Astronomy, History of Magic, and Herbology.

Optional subject for the start of the third year Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Divination, Care of

Magical Creatures, and Muggle Studies.

Why ‘this’ rather than ‘that’?

What ought we teach in schools?

If education is for… Getting the poor into work; Preparing men and women for their

respective roles; Selecting bright children for bright futures; Ensuring everyone has the opportunity to

grow and flourish; Ensuring everyone can contribute to their

society.

Preparing men and women for their respective roles;

Curriculum reflects cultural values:Education of Girls: 1908 conference on infant mortality Suggested that too much education was bad for

girls Education caused physiological damage and

produced sterility Intelligent women were unable to breast feed In adolescence, girls needed their energy to

establish a regular menstrual cycle

Good Wives and Little Mothers: Social Anxieties and the Schoolgirl's Curriculum, 1890-1920 Carol DyhouseOxford Review of Education, Vol. 3, No. 1, History and Education. Part Two (1977), pp. 21-35

Philosophers and curriculum

Rousseau: Child-centred, stage

appropriate, but gendered.

Dewey: Using the fourfold

interests of children, namely: construction, inquiry, artistic expression, social.

Wollstonecraft: For instance, botany,

mechanics, and astronomy. Reading, writing, arithmetic, natural history, and some simple experiments in natural philosophy, might fill up the day; but these pursuits should never encroach on gymnastic plays in the open air.

Wollstonecraft (1792) A Vindication of the Rights of Women.

What does the word curriculum mean?

A common sense view: The subjects we learn in school

A selection from, and organisation of, the available knowledge that exists at a particular time

Whitson (2006) from the Wikimedia Commons

The ‘hidden curriculum’

Past present and future

History lesson: 1970s –progressive education child-

centred primary education and topic work.

Primary curriculum almost entirely determined by individual teachers.

Secondary curriculum determined by the examination system.

No political interference in ‘curriculum knowledge’

1970s schooling blamed for economic decline and social disorder.

‘Moral panic‘! Curriculum as a ‘secret garden’

(Anthony Crosland). Attack on teachers and education in

Callaghan’s (Labour PM) Ruskin College speech (1976).

Education and the curriculum now politically centre-stage

New right or ‘Thatcherite’ policies 1988 Education Act introduced the

statutory National Curriculum: 'entitlement curriculum'.

Traditionalist curriculum: ten subjects in a hierarchy (core and other foundation subjects).

National Curriculum subjects English Maths Science Design and technology Information and Communication Technology (ICT) History Geography Art and design Music Physical education Also advised: PSHE, citizenship, MFL

How good is the knowledge we are given at school? We have tended to accept school

knowledge as unquestionably true But the subjects we learn are just one

way of organising the world We forget that subjects are humanly

produced Perhaps subjects put the world into

too many compartments

Areas of learning: Rose (2009: 46)http://publications.education.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/Primary_curriculum_Report.pdf

The Cambridge ReviewDomains ‘essential to the primary phase’:

arts and creativity citizenship and ethics faith and belief language, oracy and literacy mathematics physical and emotional health place and time science and technology

The new government:

Gove and Hirsch

Gove admires the ideas of American E D Hirsch, who advocates teaching core knowledge.

He believes that includes: “the basic principles of constitutional government,

mathematics and language skills, important events in world history, and acknowledged masterpieces of art, music and literature"

General knowledge should be a goal of education because it "makes people competent regardless of race, class or ethnicity”

source: Coppola (2000) http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Hirsch.html

The curriculum reflects cultural values - is never neutral It is teaching us far more

than basic facts It is teaching us who we

are in relation to a particular country at a certain time

It is teaching us what it means to be male, female, Welsh, Japanese...

Where, or if, we belong.

National Curriculum values “Foremost is a belief in education, at

home and at school, as a route to the spiritual, moral, social, cultural, physical and mental development, and thus the wellbeing, of the individual. Education is also a route to equality of opportunity for all, a healthy and just democracy, a productive economy, and sustainable development.” http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/key-stages-1-and-2/Values-aims-and-purposes/index.aspx

The Hidden Curriculum

Transmitted through routines & rules and the behaviour of adults

? Discovering knowledge is not a task for pupils

? The voice of authority must be obeyed

? Competition is more important than co-operation

? Reading and writing are more important than talking and thinking

? Men are more important than women

Knowledge as propagandaGovernments can attempt to control

what children think

Throughout the ages many countries have controlled knowledge with a view to controlling people.

Most states exercise this power.

Questions?

Governments can attempt to control what children think – true?

Who should control the curriculum – parents, children, teachers, local government or national government?

Was your school curriculum gendered? Can you think of example of something you

learned from a ‘hidden curriculum’? Should the curriculum be organised

differently for different ages? Why?

Bonus Question

Can you name the ‘masterpieces of art’ children should know about in grade 1, according to Hirsch?

See page 40 of... http://www.coreknowledge.org/mimik/mimik_uploads/documents/480/CKFSequence_Rev.pdf