How can value-led education ensure the
design, development, and implementation
of a curriculum all staff are proud of
support learners to become ‘good’ citizens
in their future life?
I wanted to build a curriculum on
the foundations of pedagogical
values not legislation
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10 years work in education management where a perceived
divide between those delivering pedagogy and those managing
pedagogy is becoming increasingly wide (what was the impact
of Incorporation and what lessons will be learnt for things like
the Academy/UTC/Studio School/Free School model)
A tsunami of reforms all claiming to create ‘greater freedom
and flexibilities’ across government legislation, which has only
served to accentuate the above (GLH Vs Study Programmes)
Survey results on the amount of funding spent on teaching and
learning activities (Coffield et al)
The reaction of the recent reforms to education compared to
those of other sectors (more than pensions)
Changes to the direction of the ‘professionalization’ of the
sector (Lingfield)
How do humans behave?
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‘Darling we are doing the Lion King’ (and other
adventures in the Serengeti)
The human brain makes connections (Corrie)
Enrich and Haidt confirm that we are ‘groupish’
Tabloid in nature – what do the international
league tables really say for example. How
valuable are your BTECs? How valuable is your
value added?
Focused on austerity! (thus a natural propensity to
be sceptical and negative – see Ashton, Lauder
and Brown)
What do we consider the purposes
of education?
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Action research: The move away from learning
outcomes (otherwise entitled ‘I don’t care what
is was designed to do I care what it can do’)
Perspectives on what education should be (e.g.
West Burham – what role does ‘entitlement’ play
/ where should Post-16 education sit)
(short term) Perspectives on how that should be
assessed
Research being discussed now – what is the
purposes of apprenticeship growth?
What did Tomlinson offer? What convictions
drive legislation?
Using the values to move research
forwards…
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Do we have to explore what the relationship between
behaviours, qualifications, and employment are (Biesta)
Communities of Practice: creating time and space for all
to learn from each other – a College wide response
We equip ALL staff with the ability to join the dots
between social science and purer economic research so
that they have a chance to plan a curriculum which can
move away from learning outcomes or teaching to a test
(see Alexandar etc)
Staff now focusing in on 3 individual projects across 4
institutions which have been identified as the next steps
for development (critical thinking, ILT, Assessment)
Bridging the conceptual divide with Primary Education
practice (e.g. Clarke)
Recommendations
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We use new funding methodologies (based on GLH or
otherwise) to find space for Joint Practice Development
(see Fielding)
We ask ALL staff in learning organisations to undertake
(and publish?) academic work based on practice each
year (the Semmelweiss effect)
We join up industry research (what is the role of SQSs
and what is the relationship between managers, teachers
and UKCES) to explore who all the collaborative partners
are in curriculum development
Everyone takes a more forceful approach with
government so that we can take a ‘yard stick’ of the
impact of current reforms – this is about so much more
than pensions!
Thus get a Professional Body that does not place ’30
hours CPD’ as its most heard message (humans group
around what they know)