The National Curriculum: an agenda for research

Abstract

Educational researchers have not been involved in the establishment of the National Curriculum and their views have not been attended to by policy makers. It is argued that this is understandable because, unfortunately, researchers have failed to address the subject matter, i.e. content, of lessons as a substantial theme for research. Recent developments in American educational research are referred to so as to demonstrate the ways in which the subject matter of lessons is being investigated by researchers and future possibilities are illustrated by reference to the National Curriculum consultation document for mathematics.