Knowledge is Power: Embracing our opportunities for Curriculum design
By Isabelle Jones @icpjones
Like many people in education, I have embarked on a curriculum journey with my school. As a newly appointed Associate Assistant Headteacher in charge of Teaching & Learning and CPD, my role is clearly to focus on the “how” but … Can the “what” and the “how” be separated and, more to the point, should they be? If the “what” appears disjointed, the “how” is unlikely to be effective, let alone inspirational.
I was educated in a country with a very centralised educational system: no differences between schools in terms of subject time allocations, curricula, and with no examination boards. The curriculum was delivered, you had to learn the same content as everybody else, apply it and it did not matter which school you were studying at. If your learning did not match expectations, well, you had to do it all over again by repeating the year.
Quite a different proposition from the educational system I have worked in over the past 27 years…
Knowledge is power
Education in general and the Curriculum in particular, have always had an ambiguous relationship with politicians. Yes, knowledge is power, and choosing the content that goes into a National Curriculum is most definitely a political act. In a centralised educational system, it is perhaps more obvious but, in any system, the power resides in the selection of the broad content and in the core elements that enable students to make sense of it all.
So, if we are given the opportunity to select at least some of the content we teach, sequence, and tailor it to the need of our students; we certainly need to apply ourselves and realise that this is a major way in which we can make a difference.
Granted, our individual curriculum power will be limited by the way time is allocated and priorities are implemented in schools. However, I would argue that the greatest limits will be the ones imposed by our own perceptions of what is essential to prepare our students for the future.
Ambitious curriculum
So much has been said about the need to have an ambitious curriculum… Although this can mean different things to different people, it usually involves the idea of teaching complex and relevant knowledge.
I have always been very suspicious of any idea of relevance when discussing what is taught in school. Is relevance only what we think should apply to our pupils? Isn’t that capping our expectations? Isn’t that also dangerously overpromoting one specific view of the world in order to establish some kind of arbitrarily rank-ordered cultural capital tick list?
Why this and Why now
To own our curriculum, we need to explain the “why this and why now” so that it is coherent and clear to all parties, including students and parents.
Our intent is clear- an ambitious and coherent curriculum that ensures students engage in a broad and rich experience that is appropriate to their needs and prepares them academically, socially, and personally for the opportunities, challenges, and responsibilities of further education, employment, and adult life.
Again, we are the ones deciding not only the “what”, but also how “appropriate to their needs” it is, which involves agreeing on what students’ actual needs are. Moreover, we are not just considering what is needed to fully access our subjects but more generally, how this will contribute to students becoming well-educated and socially integrated individuals in the future.
So … What should we agree is appropriate? I would say …possibly anything that will open up students’ horizons, increase their life chances, make them think and develop some critical thinking-although it is not something politicians are always that keen on, interestingly.
As we start the new school year, it is certainly worth remembering that planning the rationale and details of what knowledge is to be taught and delivered is not a new educational trend. It is something to embrace as our core business and one great opportunity to truly make a difference.
Isabelle Jones is a very experienced French and Spanish teacher, Associate Assistant Headteacher (Teaching & Learning and CPD), former Head of Modern Languages in 2 different schools, and a native French speaker. She has an MA in Languages Applied to Economics and Law and a postgraduate Diploma in Translation and Interpreting studies. She is a regular speaker at language events, and she blogs at http://isabellejones.blogspot.com. She enjoys sharing language resources and examples of evidence-informed practice. Follow her on Twitter @icpjones