Developing a curriculum for the twenty-first century: the experiences of England and Northern Ireland

The ultimate aim of this article is to provide a basis for forming broad and generalisable perspectives on reforms in education and in particular on curriculum reforms. This article discusses the curriculum reform process in general. Critical viewpoints are given as to why curriculum reforms reoccur in many countries with new role players on board. It refers to three countries were curriculum reforms have taken placed recently namely Namibia, South Africa and Slovenia. The discussions are based on my studies of the educational reform processes of these countries. I also read various other relevant literatures in order to gain wider perspectives as possible on curriculum reforms in general. Furthermore, the article provides strategies for minimising the reoccurrence of curriculum reforms. Recommendations include, among others, that everyone be kept aware of and be well prepared for the curriculum changes, are made. The policymakers are sensitised to focus on the process of implementation and on the issues relating to money, resources and time.

The structure of the school curriculum in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and to a lesser extent Scotland is the combined legacy of what was described in Chapter 2 as the 'nationalised curriculum' that emanated from the Educational Reform Act of 1988. Since 1999 the devolution of power from Westminster to national assemblies/parliaments in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh, has allowed greater difference and distinctiveness to emerge across the UK. In considering the curricula which have emerged in the four nations since devolution, this chapter adopts a 'policy historiography approach' (Gale, 2001, p. 385) focusing on the substantive issues of policy, the nature of the curricula created and the place of professionals in this. Gale's concept of policy historiography aligns with the idea of contexts of text production through which official policy, such as statutory curriculum documents, are produced. Global educational reform from the 1980s onwards in rich and poor nations alike has been driven strongly by economic agendas. The prime motive appears to be to maximise the skill and qualification levels of populations as a way of enhancing competitive advantage in an increasingly global economy (

WISERD Education, 2019

A discussion paper exploring issues relating to curriculum design. This was created to provide stimulus for theoretical thought about how to go about researching the development of the new curriculum in Wales. I consider how curriculum can be defined, different models of curriculum, and the place of knowledge within these. I also experiment with an analogy related to meals and curriculum design.

FORUM, 2011

British Educational Research Journal, 2000

This article reviews the author's experiences as an educational researcher working in a period of constant structural, curriculum and policy change. The author argues that, although the changing national context signi cantly altered the focus and conduct of the research, it is still possible to remain true to at least some of one's original aims, providing that both the researcher and the research planned are exible and that re exivity is built into the methodologies used. Flexibility regarding researcher role and the foci of both data collection and analysis are particularly important in this context. The analysis is illustrated with examples from two funded projects: one concerned with the planning and assessment of interdisciplinary course work projects and the other with power and gender relations in the negotiation of the design and technology curriculum.

Open Access Library Journal, 2021

Curriculum planning and subsequent process of course design and implementation are so important in educational programmes that we simply cannot ignore them. Curriculum is essentially a series of activities and learning outcome goals pertaining to each subject. The main purposes of curriculum development are to improve student learning experiences and enhance outcomes by facilitating quality teaching, identifying a suitable syllabus, and assessing learning outcomes. However, educational programmes fail to yield the results of the programmes due to insufficient attention paid to curriculum. Perhaps, the most salient reason for this is the synonymous identification of the terms, curriculum and syllabus. While curriculum is a comprehensive area of study which needs identification of significant disciplines, syllabus could be a factor within the curriculum framework. Literature has proved that possible frameworks or models of curriculum could bring about enormous results. The paper presents a viable curriculum framework mostly suitable for university and the higher education sector with significant areas such as planning, and interrelationships of teaching, learning, assessment, and syllabus. The paper has highlighted the important areas pertaining to curriculum in its framework as a model for curriculum which is useful for development, implementation, revision, and evaluation.

2019

INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK

To follow a curriculum is to be inducted into a social order. From this perspective, curriculum practice has the intention to foster social identities. The visible curriculum and the hidden curriculum are rendered as inseparable. This paper discusses curriculum research in the United Kingdom, adopting the framework sketched above. The paper pays attention to the pre-figurative relationship that exists between curriculum and social structure. It assumes that courses of schooling foreshadow specific forms of social order, and, in turn, it recognizes that curriculum change has a functional relationship to changes in the social order. It also recognizes, however, that this functional relationship is problematic: curricula, like schooling, may work to maintain the social order, or they may operate to change the social order. But, the paper asks, "What is the social order and how does it operate at local, regional, national, European and global levels?" To explore these questions, the paper focuses on four areas of curriculum and practice: (1) the association of curriculum with social order; (2) the growth of curriculum federalism in the United Kingdom under the shadow of the fragile hegemony of the super-national state; (3) the advancement of new pedagogic identities as a means of injecting social justice into curriculum practice; and (4) the centralist promulgation of a

2004

The word ‘curriculum’ does not simply mean a set of instructions, but a refers to all the things that go on in and out of classrooms concerning student learning. Therefore when we think about curriculum change we need to consider far more than prescribing textbooks, methods and course outlines : we need to know in detail what the teachers and students are already doing, what they want to do, and what they think about potential changes ; and we need to involve them in any changes. This paper describes a investigation into the current ‘curriculum-in-action’ at this university. The authors conclude that although there is little in the way of formal curriculum requirements, in fact teachers are teaching broadly similar skills, though with a considerable variety of methods and learning activities. Both teachers and students expressed general satisfaction with current courses, though they also had some suggestions for improvements. The authors recommend that future curriculum change shoul...