Downgraded curriculum? An analysis of knowledge in new curricula in Scotland and New Zealand

Abstract

The development, since 2000, of new national curricula across the Anglophone world signals a number of policy trends, including: a move from the explicit specification of content towards a more generic, skill-based approach; a greater emphasis on the centrality of the learner; and [ostensibly] greater autonomy for teachers in developing the curriculum in school. These policy shifts have attracted some criticism, especially from social realist writers, who claim that the new curricula downgrade knowledge. This paper offers a contribution to this debate; an empirically based analysis of two new curricula, New Zealand's Curriculum Framework and Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence. We conclude that, while these curricula continue to accord considerable importance to knowledge in their statements of policy intent, the social realist critique is at least partially justified, since both curricula are characterised by a lack of coherence and mixed messages about the place of knowledge.

Keywords:

• curriculum
• curriculum policy
• knowledge
• social realism

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Frauke Meyer from the University of Auckland for her invaluable assistance with this analysis of the New Zealand's Curriculum Framework (NZCF) and CfE.

Notes

1. We note here that in at least two Anglophone countries, this trend has stuttered or even reversed; in England, following the election of a Conservative government in 2010, there has been a return to the specification of ‘essential’ content, inspired by E.D. Hirsch's notion of cultural literacy (see, for example, http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/oct/15/hirsch-core-knowledge-curriculum-review); in Australia, the nascent national curriculum looks set to follow similar trends (Brennan & Zipin, 2013). This serves to remind us that curriculum policy making is an inherently political business, subject to the vagaries of local politics and concerns, as well as to global pressures and trends.

2. The article in question was reporting the award of the prize for the best paper of the year (2013) by the British Educational Research Journal to a New Zealand Academic, Elizabeth Rata, for her article ‘The politics of knowledge in education (see Rata, 2012a). Rata has been extremely critical of the curricular directions taken in New Zealand and elsewhere.

3. Health and well-being, languages, mathematics, science, social studies, expressive arts, technologies and religious and moral education.

4. Note that unless stated otherwise, all CfE documents are assumed to be sourced from the CfE web page at Education Scotland (Education Scotland, 2013).

5. In New Zealand there are two partner-curriculum documents. The NZC in English and Te Marautanga in Maori for Maori-medium schools. All references in this paper are drawn from the English-medium version (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2007).

6. For an extended discussion of whether teachers can indeed take advantage of the autonomy apparently afforded by the new curriculum, see Priestley, Biesta, and Robinson (2013).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark Priestley

Mark Priestley is Professor of Education in the School of Education at the University of Stirling, where he is Director of Postgraduate Research. His main research interests concern the school curriculum, and especially the processes of curricular change. He is currently Chair of the Editorial Board of the Scottish Educational Review and a member of the Council of the British Educational Research Association.

Claire Sinnema

Claire Sinnema is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Learning, Development and Professional Practice at the University of Auckland. Her research focuses on the improvement of teaching and learning in the context of curriculum implementation, teacher professional learning, teacher evaluation, pedagogy and school leadership. She was recently a principal investigator for the New Zealand Ministry of Education funded Monitoring and Evaluating Curriculum Implementation project.