Reinventing the Curriculum New Trends in Curriculum Policy and Practice

by Priestley, Mark; Biesta, Gert

• ISBN13: 9781441137647
• ISBN10: 1441137645
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-08-22
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence offers an example of a different approach to national curriculum development. It combines what are claimed to be the best features of top-down and bottom-up approaches to curriculum development, and provides an indication of the broad qualities that school education should promote rather than a detailed description of curriculum content. Advocates of the approach argue that it provides central guidance for schools and maintains national standards whilst at the same time allowing schools and teachers the flexibility to take account of local needs when designing programmes of education. Reinventing the Curriculum uses Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence as a rich case study, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of this approach to curriculum design and development, and exploring the implications for curriculum planning and development around the world.

Author Biography

Mark Priestley is Reader in Education in the School of Education at the University of Stirling, UK. He is Chair of the Editorial Board of the Scottish Educational Review.Gert Biesta is Professor of Educational Theory and Policy in the Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education at the University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg. He is editor-in-chief of Studies in Philosophy and Education.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The New Curriculum Mark Priestley and Gert Biesta \ Part I: The Curriculum for Excellence \ 1. The Origins and Development of Curriculum for Excellence: Discourse, Politics and Control Walter Humes \ 2. Capacities and the Curriculum Gert Biesta and Mark Priestley \ 3. Successful Learners: A Progressive or an Oppressive Concept? Jenny Reeves \ 4. Confident individuals: The Implications of an Emotional Education 'Subject' Kathryn Ecclestone \ 5. Responsible Citizens: Citizenship Education between Social Inclusion and Democratic Politics Gert Biesta \ 6. Effective Contributors: Evaluating the Potential for Children and Young People's Participation in their Own Schooling and Learning Kay Tisdall \ Part II: Critical Themes \ 7. Commonalities in National Curricula Claire Sinnema and Graeme Aitken \ 8. Developing the Teacher - or not? Ian Menter and Moira Hulme \ 9. Teachers as Agents of Change: Teacher Agency and Emerging Models of Curriculum Mark Priestley, Gert Biesta and Sarah Robinson \ 10. High Stakes Assessment and New Curricula: A Queensland Case of Competing Tensions in Curriculum Development Bob Lingard \ Conclusions: A Curriculum for the 21st Century? Gert Biesta and Mark Priestley \ References \ Index