Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- About the author
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- One An unfolding story
- Two Expanding the possible: people and technologies
- Three Knowledge worlds: boundaries and barriers
- Four Ways of knowing: everyday and academic knowledge
- Five Schools as spaces for creating knowledge
- Six A ssessment and the curriculum in a digital age
- Seven Education in the 21st century
- Eight The idea of justice in education
- References
- Index
Three - Knowledge worlds: boundaries and barriers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- About the author
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- One An unfolding story
- Two Expanding the possible: people and technologies
- Three Knowledge worlds: boundaries and barriers
- Four Ways of knowing: everyday and academic knowledge
- Five Schools as spaces for creating knowledge
- Six A ssessment and the curriculum in a digital age
- Seven Education in the 21st century
- Eight The idea of justice in education
- References
- Index
Summary
Introduction
This book is being written at a time when new forms of school governance in England are providing schools with the freedom to develop their own curriculum, and within these new structures, some contrasting approaches are emerging. For example, School 21 in Newham London, which opened in September 2012, organises its curriculum around five vital thinking skills for the 21st century: disciplined mind, creating mind, respectful mind, reflective mind and connecting mind. By contrast, the West London Free School, which opened in September 2011, focuses on traditional subjects, with all students in the first three years of secondary school studying Latin. But is the contrast as stark as it appears? These schools have only recently opened and so it is probably too early to say, but in a recent project, we also found contrasts in the curriculum on offer in secondary schools, with some secondary heads arguing for a skills-based curriculum, and others arguing for the importance of subjects, as illustrated by the following quotes:
“I’m not really bothered how much geography or history they know … because I don't think we should be measuring children's progress in how much they know, because they can access it [on the Web] … this is the 21st century … I think for me what's more important is giving them the tools … so that when they’re ready … so actually it doesn't even need such a big touch with the teacher because they’ve got such good accessibility skills.”
“Now what's the best way forward? I’ve heard some Principals argue very articulately that it's all about skills. I’ve heard others argue that if you actually ditch the subjects that is damaging as well … when you actually look at the data at 14, particularly regarding pupils’ mathematics skills … then many students might have other skills but they’ve often gone backwards in mathematics. We’ve come up with a hybrid for the time being, which is that we keep subjects, but we then try to integrate some of those competencies through the subjects.”
These quotes come from a project (the Transition Project) that investigated issues related to the transition from primary to secondary school and it had not been the intention to investigate differences between skills-based and subjects-based curricula. However, as the quotes illustrate, we found that schools expressed very different perspectives about the curriculum at the beginning of secondary school.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Education and Social Justice in a Digital Age , pp. 39 - 54Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2013