Routledge Library Editions: Curriculum – serie

Originally published in 1991. The introduction of the National Curriculum has presented many challenges for those concerned with the education of children and young people. One of the questions has been how to guarantee access to the National Curriculum for individuals with special educational needs. This book seeks to illustrate how this could be achieved in the case of those pupils with severe learning difficulties (SLD). In doing so the book offers principles and examples of practice, aiming to be relevant to the education of all pupils with special educational needs (SEN).

Originally published in 1982. This book presents a view of how the curriculum should be studied and a model for the teaching of curriculum theory. It looks at each issue clearly and briefly, and without dogmatism, and offers a wide range of practical tasks. These tasks require readers to reflect upon and analyse their preconceptions about teaching; to suggest ways of planning work for their pupils and trying it out; to analyse and evaluate textbooks and worksheets; to study other teachers in action; and to consider alternative ways of organising the curriculum. The ordering is designed to encourage teachers to form systematic strategies for thinking about the curriculum, and to lead to the discussion of matters of principle as a basis for practical choices.

Originally published in 1994. One of the most neglected areas of research and thus writing is the world of the infant school child. Those who know it best are teachers who tend not to write. Those who write most are academics and even they venture rarely into this area. This book is based on research funded by the University of Wales. A number of teachers in a Welsh LEA were interviewed over time as the National Curriculum was being introduced up to Key Stage 1. The structured interviews covered a wide range of topics related to the anticipated and actual efforts of the National Curriculum at this key stage including curriculum planning, assessment, teaching methods, and organization. Teachers' attitudes to the curriculum were explored through a short attitude test. The resulting data provides in depth the first such examination and is a resource not only in itself but for all those researchers on change agents and restructuring.

Originally published in 1993. Integrating cross-curricular themes into the curriculum has emerged as a major challenge for all schools. This book gives advice on how to deal with Citizenship in schools in terms of whole-school development planning, monitoring and evaluation. Placing it in the context of other cross-curricular themes and of core and foundation subjects in the National Curriculum, this book is for headteachers, other teachers involved in curriculum coordination, school inspectors, initial teacher trainers and lNSET providers.

Originally published in 1980. School-based curriculum development was the dominant form of curriculum development in Britain. Though there were national projects, it was thought that the initiative for change must come from within the schools. Curriculum development arose directly from the needs and enthusiasms of the schools, their pupils and their teachers. Some large schools had undertaken their own programmes while others joined forces, sharing common needs and enjoying common achievements or based effective in-school initiatives on national projects. Given how much things have changed since, this book is enlightening.Case studies: Codsall, Staffordshire; Manor Park, Newcastle; Abraham Moss Centre, Manchester; and Hele’s School, Exeter. There are also studies of the Independent Learning in Science Project and in the Nuffield Integrated Science Project.

Originally published in 1983. A broad examination of the ways in which teachers gain and use knowledge about their work is presented in this book. At the time, within curriculum studies, there was a developing greater understanding of the major role that teachers play in the implementation of materials within the classroom - as autonomous agents holding, using and creating knowledge of particular kinds which informs all of their work. This book presents a case study using retrospective interviews with a high school English teacher. Through analysis of this series of interviews, this study describes and outlines the structure of the knowledge she uses and the views she has of her concerns.

Originally published in 1990. Small primary schools were a source of considerable debate in the 1980s. This balanced and authoritative account is based on the findings of a survey of curriculum provision. It shows that small primary schools differ surprisingly little from their larger counterparts in the content of their curriculum and in the manner of its teaching. It suggests though that pupils in small schools do not necessarily get a better deal than pupils in larger schools. It looks at the future of those schools and discusses clustering and federation to pool resources. Written just as the National Curriculum was about to be introduced, this book is an interesting reflection for students of primary education, curriculum studies and educational administrators.

Originally published in 1994. This work is intended for teachers in primary and secondary schools faced with the challenge of maximizing National Curriculum opportunities for environmental or "green" issues. The contributors suggest ways of augmenting pupils' understanding of the issues.This book is for teachers in primary and secondary schools faced with the challenge of maximising curriculum opportunities for environmental issues. Specialist contributors suggest practical ways of augmenting their pupils’ understanding of these issues, via work in the other cross-curricular areas, in core and foundation subjects of the National Curriculum and in other areas of study.

Originally published in 1985. ‘Europe‘ and the EEC seemed to be virtually synonymous for the majority of our population and the ambivalent feelings many people have about the Community, together with the consistently bad press it received in the UK, seemed to engender a hostility in educational circles towards teaching about Europe as a whole. However, if one of the aims of education is to increase children’s awareness, tolerance and understanding of the world about them; to widen their experience and horizons; then teaching about the wider world must have a place in the curriculum. This book argues for education about Europe, not necessarily in favour of Europe, breaking down the national insularity of the UK curriculum and using Europe as one convenient ‘window on the wider world’.

Originally published in 1988. The history of curriculum has now become an extremely important area of curriculum research. The rehabilitation of historical studies has challenged mainstream psychological and philosophical theories of curriculum and it argues for a reformulation of the current dominance of scientific management models of curriculum changes. This book presents comparative data from a range of countries which help define the methodologies employed in curriculum history. It also explores some of the major curriculum issues uncovered in historical studies.

Originally published in 1986. Pupils, teachers and educationalists have contended with continuity difficulties for many years but the problem remains a major one not only in Britain but also throughout the world, including North America. This book examines the problem, assesses the steps being taken to minimise the problem and makes suggestions for improving practice. Continuity is considered both historically and in its 1980s context. The major emphasis is on strategies used at national, regional and school level to minimise difficulties children face when they change school - strategies such as teacher visits and exchanges, liaison committees and the use of transfer documents.

Originally published in 1987. This book examines the growth of pastoral care and the pastoral curriculum, and innovations in vocational education in schools. These two major developments are considered in relation to the guidance and counselling movement whose impact on education over the preceding twenty-five years was considerable. The concept of person-centred learning grew out of this movement and with it many of the liberalising changes in education. This is a fascinating look at this area from a time when the whole nature and direction of schooling in the UK was about to change.

Originally published in 1993. "A Lesson for Us All" tells of the intrigue and pressures that surrounded the introduction of the National Curriculum, the most sweeping educational reform since 1944, and examines the roles of three education secretaries: Kenneth Baker, John MacGregor and Kenneth Clarke. Duncan Graham was the man charged with introducing the new-style lessons into the 24,000 state schools in England and Wales from 1988 to 1991 when he resigned as Chairman and Chief Executive of the National Curriculum Council after deep divisions over principles with Kenneth Clarke, the Education Secretary. In collaboration with David Tytler, former Education Editor of "The Times", Mr Graham tells of the struggles with ministers, civil servants and the teacher unions to introduce the new style lessons to a tight timetable set by the Government.

Originally published in 1992. What kinds of literacy are appropriate for life and work in the late twentieth century? What historically is the relationship between curriculum and literacy, and how is it changing? The essays in this book provide an innovative forum for discussion for what are often two quite distinct enterprises: literacy research and curriculum studies. They re-frame and redraw the traditional boundaries between these two disciplines, examining socio-cultural theories and classroom practices in a diverse and lively debate. They explore readings of the modernist/postmodernist debate and specific studies in curriculum politics and history, rhetoric, language and literacy education, media studies and educational linguistics. This multi-voiced anthology brings together researchers from Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States in a common critical reassessment of the curriculum/literacy nexus.

Originally published in 1983. Curriculum studies and curriculum theory have tended to be pursued almost exclusively in the context of the school. Developments in curriculum theory have therefore not found reflections in much theoretical work in adult education. This book points to the necessity of a curriculum theory for adult and continuing education through discussion of both curriculum studies and the principles of adult education. The various ways in which systems of adult education are now developing are reviewed, in social, political and cultural terms, and recent advances in education theory are related to developments in post-school education.

Originally published in 1989. What should be taught in schools? This book explores the differing curriculum traditions in Britain, Europe, the USA, Latin America, India and the Far East and the possibilities for change. For the practising teacher and the educationalist it opens up the debates about ‘quality’ in education which have been intense in many countries throughout the 1980s and focuses on how different countries are trying to change the curriculum to achieve higher standards and greater relevance. Considering the age-old questions "Who shall be educated?" and "What knowledge is of most worth?", four major curriculum traditions are examined in an historical context. The authors show how some European and American practices were freely incorporated into emerging systems in other parts of the world while elsewhere curricula were transferred by imperialists to their colonies and then modified. In the first part of the book the difficulties of curriculum change are explored within the contexts of countries where the curricula are rooted in indigenous models. The second part examines countries where curricula have been transferred from other parts of the world and how this affects curriculum change. In each case the politics of educational change since 1945, when compulsory education was introduced in many countries, has been analysed.The book will help students of education to understand the issues of curriculum reform and the transfer of curriculum models and places the problems in an international perspective with case studies.

Originally published in 1983. Written by an experienced headteacher and curriculum consultant, this book was written to help schools with the task of planning their whole curriculum - teachers, governors, administrators and students. It provides information on national educational policies of the time, approaches to curriculum planning, and the structures of actual schools. The Department of Education and Science had just issued Circular 6 of 1981, which called upon education authorities, governing bodies, heads and the staffs of schools ‘to secure a planned and coherent curriculum within the schools’. The book describes the background to this development; spells out the tasks involved; provides a series of exercises for planning and discussion; and offers ideas, questions and methods. It recognises the diversity of school circumstances, and talks about the vital transition from theory to practice.

Originally published in 1978. This book presents how the potential of the comprehensive school could be realized by bringing unity and coherence to its curriculum and organization. Among the subjects considered are value judgments and curriculum design; faculties and the organization of learning; subjects and options; the sixth form; and the timetable as an enabling device. This book goes beyond the prevalent considerations of the time to examine the relationship between educational theory and practice, and the underlying issues of how a rationale of curriculum may be determined and the involvement of teachers in school-focused curriculum development. An appendix considers the curriculum and timetable structure of Sheredes School in Hertfordshire, a new comprehensive school set up in 1969.

Originally published in 1991. Consisting of 18 teachers' reports on attempts to change traditional learning environments, the contributors argue for a commitment to whole curriculum planning, which embraces a variety of learning environments both inside and outside the school walls. There is a particular concern in several of the reports for lower attaining pupils and those pupils who seem to gain very little from `normal lessons'.

Originally published in 1989. This book defines and explains in simple language the essential characteristics of the school curriculum and the forces which act on it. The National Curriculum provides an integrating theme throughout the book, and the author gives a list of suggested further reading. This is not just a standard first year text for students starting B.Ed and PGCE courses but also an introduction for school governors who under the 1986 and 1988 Education Acts have an increased responsibility for the curriculum in their schools.

Originally published in 1983 and as a second edition in 1988. An attempt is made in this book to disentangle some of the professional, ethical, political, theoretical and practical issues involved in curriculum evaluation. This book present evidence concerning a number of evaluation strategies and techniques, drawing on experience in several countries, including the UK, Australia and the US, to debate the potential of insider and outsider approaches to evaluation, and combinations of the two. It also offers a practical source book for those wishing to plan and conduct curriculum evaluations. Finally, it considers the crucial question of how evaluation can influence curriculum action and, thereby, teaching and learning.

Originally published in 1984. This book charts important changes brought about by teachers in the way literature is read and written about in schools. Rooted in experiences of inner-city schools, it is extremely practical and especially valuable for the multi-ethnic classroom. The writers, all of whom are experienced teachers of English, believe, however, that all schools need to respond to the cultural, racial and linguistic diversity of British society, whether their own populations are homogeneous or mixed. By concentrating on real classrooms, real lessons and real children, the book shows how particular ideas can be put into practice. It approaches theories of reading and of literature through specific examples of lively and successful practice and argues the ease for the centrality of literature and literacy to the curriculum. The book includes lists of resources: books to read with children and books for teachers to read for themselves to deepen their understanding of the ideas and their confidence in adapting them for their own classrooms. Throughout the book continuities are emphasized: between life and literature, between reading and writing, and between learning to read, becoming better at it, and studying literature.

Originally published in 1972. This is a practical and comprehensive guide to planning and developing a curriculum which will give both professional and prospective teachers a clearer insight into this vital part of the teacher's role. The study of objectives, selection and organisation of content and methods, evaluation, the total situation, various settings for curriculum development and the advantages of co-operative curriculum planning are among the aspects considered but they are always linked to the school and classroom situation with frequent examples of curriculum development based on the principles outlined. The authors’ wide experience of helping teachers plan their own curriculum and their first-hand experience of curriculum development projects makes them well placed to understand the problems confronting the teacher.

Originally published in 1987. This volume focuses upon the emergence of the subject-matter of the American school. This provides entrance to looking at the interplay between social, cultural, economic and professional interests that give form to contemporary school practices. The historical detail enables understanding of how school knowledge is shaped and fashioned by issues of structural continuity and social transformation. This selection of chapters looks at how practices have been shaped by the struggles to define the American school curriculum in different subjects. The authors bring out how particular social values are made into ideologies; and examine the past to enable consideration of the possibilities for further development.

Originally published in 1986. This book's focus is on English secondary schooling in the late 19th and 20th Centuries, during which the definition of a general ‘secondary’ education was itself negotiated and consolidated before the development of secondary modern and then comprehensive schools. In each chapter, a specialist contributor considers the changing ideology, shape and status of one of the seven traditional academic subjects, namely Classics, Modern Languages, English, History, Geography, Mathematics and Science. These seven school subjects have dominated the academic school curriculum since the nineteenth century and continue to exert a powerful influence upon the contemporary school curriculum today despite the emergence of various rivals and the growing status of ‘practical' subjects.

Originally published in 1978 and as a second edition in 1984. The greatly enlarged second edition of the bibliography contains sections on curriculum history, curriculum management, ‘official’ publications, and journals. It also added expanded sections on the sociology of the curriculum and on curriculum evaluation, assessment, and accountability, reflecting the continuing development of curriculum studies in the United Kingdom, the interest shown in the curriculum by scholars in other areas of educational enquiry, and the rapid changes in the socio-cultural context in which the curriculum is discussed, designed and transacted.

Originally published in 1982. This book analyses developments in primary education since 1974 and from this analysis draws out issues gaining rapidly in currency and seem likely to have significant impact on primary education in the following decade. As well as including a substantial number of papers written specially for the book, it draws on some of the best of writing on primary education at the time. This is extremely useful for those interested in curriculum history.

Originally published in 1983. This book provides the first overview of developments in primary science prior to and following the national survey of primary schools in 1978. Key issues central to contemporary policy and practice are identified, set in context and interrelated for teachers, students, tutors and policymakers. Contributors to the book include most of the leading figures in contemporary primary science at the time.

Originally published in 1971. All education systems tend to be traditional and conservative. In times of rapid social change, the work of the schools becomes increasingly outdated by events. Continuous adaptation of the curriculum (which includes content, method and organization) can no longer be left to haphazard, piecemeal innovations-it must be managed. In a comparative study of the strategies adopted to date in the U.S.A., England, Scotland and France, this book points out that-although considerable reforms have been effected in these countries during the past ten to fifteen years-no adequate curriculum theory has yet been developed. The author also turns his attention to the phenomenon which he considered symptomatic of inherent failures in the education system: the drop-outs and hippies He concludes that notions about 'learning' must be revised and rather than a place in which formal instruction is given, the school of the future should be conceived as a resources-for-learning centre.