This article explores how the new Curriculum for Wales offers an alternative to the traditional status quo in the schooling of industrialised societies by providing an opportunity for inquiry-led approaches. It argues that mainstream schooling is beholden to dominant discourses that have an alleigance to a factory-model of education. As a…

In recent years educational preoccupations have largely focused on 'teaching and learning,' often drawing on deficit models of teaching and encouraging myths about 'poor teachers' and 'bad teaching.' Debate about the curriculum has been discouraged--but this has not stopped it being 'reformed,' often in profoundly reactionary ways. This article…

This is an argument for a new public education for England, but not for a new public school. The focus should be on aims, not structures. We should ensure that all schools (community schools, private schools, academies and religious schools) are working to realise the same nationally determined aims. The national set of aims should be determined…

This article is written in response to widespread concerns about the inadequacy of the school curriculum in England, and the urgent need to rethink what public education should involve. It builds on earlier contributions in FORUM and elsewhere by discussing curricular opportunities arising from Labour's proposal for a National Education Service.…

In this article it is argued that the development of young people's skills in using spoken language should be given more time and attention in the school curriculum. The author discusses the importance of the effective use of spoken language in educational and work settings, considers what research has told us about the factors that make group…

Well before the examinations grade crisis of 2012, Michael Gove had set out clear intentions for reforming public examinations. Though he claimed to be improving examinations and assessment by replicating practices that took place in high-performing countries and thus improving the ability of the UK economy to "compete", this…

The main developments in this broad curriculum area are traced decade by decade with key signpost successes highlighted, along with examples of retrenchment and opposition to the march of progress. The drivers for change and regression were often central government initiatives but, all along, the activity of progressive educationists/academics and…