Michael Young and the curriculum field in South Africa

The paper addresses the question of what we should make of Michael Young’s recent work with respect to curriculum theory by considering the particular case of South African curriculum reform. The paper thus traces two trajectories: the evolution of Michael Young’s ideas over time and South African curriculum reform in the post-apartheid period. The paper shows how the two trajectories have run in parallel, not least because of Young’s ongoing involvement and interest in South Africa. Three broad periods in Young’s career are identified: the new sociology of education period; a middle period where he engaged in substantial policy work, focusing predominantly on the relation between schooling and the economy; and his social realist phase, where much of his work has focused on an educational notion of specialized knowledge: ‘powerful knowledge’. The possibilities and limitations of this notion as it has been taken up in the research literature, and in relation to the South African case, are explored.     

Powerful knowledge,esoteric knowledge,curriculum knowledge

This paper seeks to introduce a wider audience to a set of ideas developed by a group of sociologists of education who draw on Basil Bernstein’s late work on knowledge structures and whose epistemological stance is grounded in Social Realism. The paper’s main substantive focus is the concept of ‘powerful knowledge’ – recently popularised by Michael Young – and the implications of this notion for curriculum change. ‘Powerful knowledge’ connects with two other key ideas – ‘knowledge of the powerful’ and ‘esoteric knowledge’ – all of which have fed into recent debates about curriculum development and change. Various inter-connections between these ideas are examined. The paper concludes by identifying three chronic ‘tensions’ which impede efforts to extend powerful knowledge to socially and economically disadvantaged students.     

Toward a Postmodern Notion of Human Rights

Abstract

A central element of Richard Peters’ philosophy of education has been his analysis of ‘education as initiation’. Understanding initiation is internally related to concepts of community and what it may mean to be a member. The concept of initiation assumes a mutually interdependent, dynamic relationship between the individual and community that claims to be justified on cognitive, moral and practical grounds. Although Peters’ analysis is embedded in a different discourse, his insights are relevant to current discourse on the individual in community. A fruitful conversation can be developed between Peters’ account of the learner’s ‘initiation’ into ‘bodies of knowledge and awareness’ and Alasdair MacIntyre’s concept of ‘practices’; and how both assume a notion of ‘tradition’ within partly overlapping accounts of ‘community’. Secondly, I will consider how ‘initiation’ touches the concept of ‘social justice as membership’ developed by current philosophers, Michael Sandel and Michael Walzer, and what import Peters’ analysis has for different degrees of active and passive membership and participation. Thirdly, I will consider Charles Taylor’s ‘social imaginary’ as a contextual framework for processes surrounding ‘education as initiation’. This article does not argue that Peters’ concept of initiation cannot be contested at some points but rather that it can inform, and be informed by, the conversation with those who contend that community is itself a good essential for human flourishing.     

What remains of history? Historical epistemology and historical understanding in Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence

This paper critically examines the framing of historical knowledge in the primary and ‘broad general education’ phases (ages 4–14) of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence. The paper focuses on curriculum documentation, particularly the curriculum's aims and ‘Experiences and Outcomes’ and evaluates these in light of recent research on children's historical understanding. It is argued that the decision to frame historical understanding as ‘People, Past Events and Societies’ within the context of a ‘social studies’ curriculum area has been motivated by a misunderstanding of history's unique disciplinary identity. It is argued that history curricula must take account of the unique ontological and epistemological challenges posed by investigating the past and that by failing to do this, ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ offers children in Scotland a problematic representation of what it means to study the past. The paper challenges the curriculum in both epistemic and pedagogical terms, before suggesting that a rigorous study of history as a discipline can make a valuable contribution to children's personal and social development.     

A note on knowledge in the schooled society: towards an end to the crisis in curriculum theory

Michael Young’s recent paper in this journal is correct; there is a profound crisis in curriculum theory, and to be intellectually viable into the future the field must strive to bring back in empirical study of curriculum. Also by ignoring the empirical content of knowledge and access to it in mass education systems throughout the world, the field’s influential neo-Marxist paradigm unproductively avoids troubling, even theoretically damning, counterfactual evidence. The historical moment to address the crisis is propitious as the ‘schooled society’ is flourishing in unprecedented participation in formal education accompanied by a robust culture of education influencing fundamental processes that construct society worldwide. A brief review of sociological studies of historical and global change in curricular form and content illustrates the challenge before the field to end its own crisis. The results also indicate a profound challenge to the field’s reigning paradigm.     

The treasure house of a nation? Literary heritage,curriculum and devolution in Scotland and England in the twenty-first century

In January 2012, Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond announced a radical measure that would see every Scottish school student study a Scottish text from a prescribed list. In 2010, Michael Gove announced that ‘Our literature is the best in the world’ and that every pupil should study particular authors. The ‘cultural heritage’ model of English is increasingly dismissed by teachers and students However, it is this ‘cultural heritage’ model which is preserved in the discourse of politicians. This paper explores the role that literary heritage texts play in the discourse of education policy in the context of devolution in twenty-first century Britain and considers the drivers and differences which can be seen in England and Scotland.     

What’s in a name? That which we call a crisis? A commentary on Michael Young’s article ‘Overcoming the crisis in curriculum theory’

Michael Young’s article ‘Overcoming the crisis in curriculum theory: a knowledge-based approach’ (JCS, 45, 2) is discussed from the starting point that the claimed crisis is constructed from a decisive solution, that is the solution determines what is a crisis. But curriculum research and curriculum theory are in need of change. Curriculum research is discussed from an international and historical perspective. The focus is on how economic changes and changes in modes of production have created demands that have been met by an increasing trust in competition between schools and nations. Curriculum construction has been globalized. Curriculum research and curriculum theory ought to problematize and analyse these changes in the conditions for curriculum construction and the politics of education. It is insight into these changes that are needed as well as a serious discussion on the meaning and direction of formation (Bildung) as a framework for research on the knowledge that has to be selected and organized for teaching.     

Rhizocurrere: a Deleuzo-Guattarian approach to curriculum autobiography

This paper introduces rhizocurrere, a curriculum autobiographical concept I created to chart my efforts to develop place-responsive outdoor environmental education. Rhizocurrere brings together rhizome, a Deleuze and Guattari concept, with currere, Pinar’s autobiographical method for curriculum inquiry. Responding to invitations from Deleuze, Guattari and Pinar, to experiment, I have adapted their ideas to create a philosophical~methodological concept that draws attention to relationships between my pedagogical and curriculum research and the contexts that have shaped my life~work. This paper outlines rhizocurrere, its parent concepts and how I have enacted my attempts to think differently about curricula and pedagogy. The central question is not ‘what is rhizocurrere?’ but rather ‘how does/could rhizocurrere work?’ and ‘what does/might rhizocurrere allow me to do?’     

Not just skills: what a focus on knowledge means for vocational education

This contribution to the symposium on Michael Young’s article ‘Overcoming the crisis in curriculum theory: a knowledge based approach’, supports his contention that curriculum theory has lost sight of its object—‘what is taught and learned in schools’, and argues that this has particularly deleterious consequences for vocational education and training (VET). VET is unproblematically positioned as applied, experiential and work-focused learning, and it is seen as a solution for those who are alienated from or unsuccessful in more traditional forms of academic education. This article argues that rather than being a mechanism for social inclusion, VET is instead a key way in which social inequality is mediated and reproduced because it excludes students from accessing the theoretical knowledge they need to participate in debates and controversies in society and in their occupational field of practice. It presents a social realist analysis to argue why VET students need access to theoretical knowledge, how a focus on experiential and applied learning constitutes a mechanism for social exclusion and what a ‘knowledge rich’ VET curriculum would look like.     

Speculative method in digital education research

The question of ‘what works’ is currently dominating educational research, often to the exclusion of other kinds of inquiries and without enough recognition of its limitations. At the same time, digital education practice, policy and research over-emphasises control, efficiency and enhancement, neglecting the ‘not-yetness’ of technologies and practices which are uncertain and risky. As a result, digital education researchers require many more kinds of questions, and methods, in order to engage appropriately with the rapidly shifting terrain of digital education, to aim beyond determining ‘what works’ and to participate in ‘intelligent problem solving’ [Biesta, G. J. J. 2010, “Why ‘What Works’ Still Won’t Work: From Evidence-Based Education to Value-Based Education.” Studies in Philosophy and Education 29 (5): 491–503] and ‘inventive problem-making’ [Michael, M. 2012, “‘What Are We Busy Doing?’ Engaging the Idiot.” Science, Technology &; Human Values 37 (5): 528–554]. This paper introduces speculative methods as they are currently used in a range of social science and art and design disciplines, and argues for the relevance of these approaches to digital education. It synthesises critiques of education’s over-reliance on evidence-based research, and explores speculative methods in terms of epistemology, temporality and audience. Practice-based examples of the ‘teacherbot’, ‘artcasting’ and the ‘tweeting book’ illustrate speculative method in action, and highlight some of the tensions such approaches can generate, as well as their value and importance in the current educational research climate.     

Becoming world-wise: an educational perspective on the rhetorical curriculum

In this paper I discuss some aspects of recent scholarship on rhetoric and the curriculum, making a distinction between approaches that use insight from rhetoric to analyse formal and informal curricula and approaches that develop programmatic suggestions for the conduct of education. In the paper I deploy an educational perspective which I distinguish from a perspective that sees education mainly as a process of the socialization of individuals into existing social, cultural and political ways of doing and being. I focus on three aspects of the discussion: the conceptions of education that are being used in the discussion and, more specifically, the way in which the rhetorical approach is connected to the ideas of paideia and Bildung; the particular understanding of language in the rhetorical approach to the curriculum; and the question whether the rhetorical curriculum should be understood in terms of empowerment or in terms of emancipation. I argue for a more consistent and more radical adoption of insights from rhetorical scholarship in order to make the rhetorical curriculum more educational and more politically aware. I capture this with the idea of becoming ‘world-wise’ as an alternative for the idea that the rhetorical curriculum should contribute to making students ‘symbol-wise’.     

Foster Watson: 1860–1929

ABSTRACT

Michael Young’s work is central to debates about knowledge and the school curriculum. In recent years he has renounced his early argument that school subjects represent the ‘knowledge of the powerful’, arguing instead that access and equality for all students are dependent on ensuring that all get access to ‘powerful knowledge’. This paper provides an interpretation of Young’s work.     

Popular Culture goes to school in Hong Kong: a Language Arts curriculum on revolutionary road?

English teaching and learning has taken an interesting shift in Hong Kong schools with the implementation of the New Senior Secondary (NSS) curriculum under the ‘334’ education reform. Situating the paper within the broader considerations of the intersection of Cultural Studies and English teaching, this paper examines the challenges and prospects of teaching the new Language Arts elective called Learning English through Popular Culture module. It is argued that while the module endeavours to connect and motivate Hong Kong students to learn English through popular culture materials, the official curriculum and schemes of work, however, narrowly articulate the teaching of popular culture texts conceived as ‘text-types’. Such a formulaic approach to using popular culture in the classroom is limiting and locks students into a procedural way of ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’ popular cultural texts. The paper concludes by offering some ways forward that might deliver what is otherwise a revolutionary and innovative curriculum. Beyond the specific case of Hong Kong, the curriculum challenge discussed is instructive for other education systems and curriculum scholars looking to develop new pedagogies from the intersecting disciplines of Cultural Studies and English teaching.     

‘Nature’ and the ‘environment’ in Jamaica’s primary school curriculum guides

In cases where environmental education is institutionalised within schools, the curriculum can affect what and how students learn about ‘nature’ and the ‘environment’. In Jamaica, schools are considered important settings for environmental education; the curriculum therefore includes environmental issues. Using content analysis, representations of ‘nature’ and the ‘environment’ in the nation’s primary level Curriculum Guides were examined. Findings indicate that although many units emphasise an anthropocentric view of nature, this is tempered by depictions of nature’s fragility and, in some instances, nature’s ‘divine’ dimensions. Several curricular units also facilitate student’s creative engagement with nature, allowing for multiple views of the natural world.     

Discursive Dancing: Traditionalism and Social Realism in the 2013 English History Curriculum Wars

This paper is an exploration of the debates surrounding the publication of a new National Curriculum for history in England. The draft curriculum was published in February 2013 and was withdrawn just 6 months later in the face of considerable opposition. This paper offers a tentative explanation for this example of a rare phenomenon: effective resistance to curriculum change. Using a socio-cognitive approach to discourse analysis, the paper explores the context models of the two antagonists in the contestation: new right traditionalism and social realism. While both context models are viewed as coherent, it is suggested that critics of the draft prevailed because they more fully comprehended the context model of their opponents and were prepared to adapt their strategy accordingly. The paper takes an analytical narrative approach to the contestation. Resistance to the draft is presented in two phases: an initial phase in which criticism was diffuse, instinctive and political; and a more effective mature phase in which opposition united around a depoliticised disciplinary defence of the subject in social realist terms. It is argued that this deft shift went unnoticed by Education Secretary, Michael Gove, rendering ineffective his attacks on his critics as ‘Marxists’ and ‘progressives’.     

Transaction and transformation at Trinity: private sponsorship,core values and Christian ethos at England's most improved academy

The Academies Programme in England, whereby new schools may be privately sponsored and managed but publicly funded, has expanded rapidly with over 200 academies already open before 2010 and many more likely given the education policies promoted by Michael Gove as Conservative Secretary of State for Education. A significant number of academies are sponsored by Christian organisations and this article draws upon the author's recent case study of Trinity Academy which has both a business sponsor and a Christian ethos. Trinity Academy, which is located at the heart of a former mining community in South Yorkshire and serves a social priority area with a history of educational underachievement, was designated ‘England's Most Improved Academy’ and the ‘Most Improved School in Yorkshire and Humberside’ just prior to the commencement of the research. In this article the contribution made by Trinity is assessed and the perspectives of sponsor, school leaders, teachers and 14‐year‐olds are evaluated. The concept of the ‘transaction’ to indicate exchange and interdependence informs both research design and analysis. The nature and quality of transactions between those who ‘author’ the authorised ‘texts’ of school life and the young people and teachers who ‘read’ and respond to these value‐laden ‘texts’ at Trinity Academy are reported. The conclusion is drawn that transactions between Trinity Academy's students, its ‘secular’ core values and its Christian ethos, and also between the public and private sectors, have supported an innovation in schooling that has transformed the opportunities and life‐chances of young people. Transactions such as those at Trinity are advocated as an ethical and socially just means of bringing about transformation in educational attainment while providing moral education that fosters autonomy and critical thinking.     

Monopolising the examining board system in England: a theoretical perspective in support of reform

The fiascoes that seem to accompany the annual publication of examination results in England, the subsequent inquiries instituted to ensure they ‘never happen again’ and the Secretary of State’s decision, reversed six months later because of fears about possible EU legal challenges, to ‘end competition between exam boards’ raise some interesting issues about the way Examination Boards (or ‘Awarding Bodies’) operate in what is partly a competitive and partly a cooperative market. At the operational level, they need to make sufficient profit from the fees they charge schools to operate the assessment and awards system effectively; at the strategic level, they need to police the proliferation of awards so that some reasonable level of efficiency is obtained in the system. This paper models the education awards market such that the implications of the various alternative strategies for achieving the twin objectives of effectiveness and efficiency can be understood. It describes how Awarding Bodies cooperate and compete to maximise profit, and justifies the original decision in September 2012 by minister Gove to create a monopoly in the awards and assessment market.     

Standing in need of justification: Michael Apple,R.S. Peters and Jürgen Habermas

Curriculum decisions are increasingly seen as technocratic or bureaucratic problems, rather than democratic issues that must be deliberated over. As such, curriculum decisions are placed in the hands of a small minority of bureaucrats and business elites who assume the only purpose of education is to prepare children for college and/or the labour market. Within these times, it is essential to revisit classics works in order to move forward a critical theory of the curriculum. To develop a critical theory of the curriculum, I shall revisit two classic books in curriculum studies—R.S. Peters’s Ethics & Education and Michael Apple’s Ideology and Curriculum. I place Michael Apple and R.S. Peters in conversation with each other because both believe, albeit differently, that the curriculum ‘stands in need of justification’: both agree the curriculum must be publically justified through democratic deliberation. Furthermore, Apple and Peters develop different sets of tools for a critical theory of the curriculum—Apple provides tools for critique and Peters tools for the normative standards. However, both inadequately develop the normative standards for determining when the curriculum is democratically justified. These normative standards, I argue, are developed by Habermas’s critical theory of discourse ethics which is capable of building upon and expanding the insights of Apple and Peters.     

Reframing the curriculum: a transformative approach

ABSTRACT

While acknowledging higher education’s complicity in inequality, the premise of this paper is that curriculum transformation can be one means of challenging and dismantling structural injustices towards the goal of equity of access and outcomes. Fraser’s multi-dimensional framework for social justice is drawn upon to explore what this transformation requires. The framework is used to critique a particular case of curriculum intervention, Education Development in South Africa. In Fraser’s terms, the interventions have been largely affirmative, not transformative. In addition, they have focused on only the first dimension of justice, redistribution, and have generally failed to attend to misrecognition and representation. Overall, we argue that the responses of higher education institutions in South Africa to the challenges of a globalised, pluralist world have been affirmative, not transformative. A transformative approach demands a ‘reframing’ of the curriculum. This involves adjusting the scale of the problem, interrogating assumptions informing the norms of the curriculum, questioning current boundaries between ‘mainstream’ and ‘other’ students and reviewing the fitness of the curriculum for a pluralist society. The paper concludes with recommendations for what such a reframing of the curriculum might entail.