Curriculum making: concepts, practices and processes

Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence has attracted a lot of flak: it is claimed to downgrade knowledge; and, following recent PISA results has been blamed for apparent declines in literacy, numeracy and science. For some critics, the answer lies in adopting so-called knowledge-rich approaches, prevalent in English schools. Yes, positioning the debate in this way can be misleading and even inaccurate. It also risks creating a spurious dichotomy of curriculum types, which is unhelpful as different actors – policy makers, teachers etc – make the curriculum in different settings and different ways. A particular issue lies in narrow conceptions of curriculum as syllabus or content, which can restrict the ways in which issues of knowledge/content, pedagogy, provision and assessment are considered in tandem.

In this presentation, I address these issues. I shall first set out a definition of curriculum as social practice – as something we do or make, as opposed to a list of content. Drawing upon a multi-level typology of curriculum making, I shall explore the different social practices that comprise curriculum making across different layers or sites of education systems, emphasising the need for a systemic and holistic approach to developing the curriculum. Starting with considerations of educational purpose, I explore curriculum as process – a logical progression from why, to what, to how – considering the importance of knowledge, and different ways of organising content in schools.

Mark Priestley is Professor of Education at the University of Stirling and Director of the new Stirling Centre for Research into Curriculum Making. His research interests lie in the school curriculum – theory, policy and practice – and especially the processes of curriculum making across different layers of education systems. Mark is Lead Editor of the Curriculum Journal, a member of the Scottish Government’s key education advisory committees, the Scottish Education Council and the Curriculum and Assessment Board, and a Co-Convener of the EERA network 3, Curriculum. His publications include Teacher Agency: An Ecological Approach and Curriculum making in Europe: policy and practice within and across diverse contexts.