Curriculum for Excellence – an opportunity to enhance practice?

(What follows is a summarised and adapted account of some of the issues raised in University of Stirling's Mark Priestley’s paper ‘Realist Social Theory and Curriculum Development’, presented at the Laboratory for Educational Theory, 26th January, 2010 , The Stirling Institute of Education)


Policies often represent opportunities to enhance practice, but more often they are forced into contexts where they do not easily fit; the result is a policy that does not work nor meet its original aspirations, becoming mutated as it translates into practice.


Curriculum for Excellence (CfE)


· May transform schools and colleges
· May disappear without a trace as its main concepts come into conflict with entrenched practices · Seamlessly assimilated into schools and colleges, with minor tweaks to existing practices and changes to terminology.

Anecdotal evidence suggest the latter scenario, as the standard approach to CfE is to audit existing practice against the new Outcomes and Experiences, making changes only where they are seen to conflict with the new guidance.

This is, thus, compliance with the new curriculum, rather than a serious engagement with its aspirational spirit.

An alternative view


CfE is a set of ideas or resources which come into contact with existing cultures and practices. It is inevitable that such ideas will mutate as they transmit through the education system and this should be seen as a potentially positive experience; teachers should be creatively mediating policy ideas as they work them to suit their immediate context. Change is brought about through the social interaction of individuals, who are influenced by the following:

· Their prior experiences, knowledge and motivations. The extent to which people can bring creative ideas into practice and share these with others.
· The opportunities and constraints provided by existing culture: the shared ideas, knowledge and values.
· The opportunities and constraints provided by social structures: the power relationships.
Developing capacity
· Empowered and engaged teachers and managers will respond to change creatively from a wide range of repertoires. Disempowered and/or uninformed individuals will respond narrowly, often to avoid risk.
· Cultural and structural barriers to change need to be indentified and addressed. Catalysts to change may be identified and enhanced.

Key ingredients

· Effective leadership
· Access to physical and cognitive resources, including good professional development
· Teacher autonomy and creativity and relationships based upon trust
· Processes for engagement

Key questions we should be asking

· What is the nature of the change initiative?
· What is meant by the four capacities?
· What are we trying to achieve in the light of this change initiative?
· What is the purpose of education?
· What are the values that are integral to colleges?

The Four capacities

· What should a [young] person leaving college be like?
· What skills and attributes should they possess: information literacy, decision-making capacities, the ability to think critically and creatively?


Biesta (2008) identifies 3 broad, overlapping purposes of education: qualification; socialisation; and subjectification (individual growth). In placing an emphasis on qualifications (HMIE, quality frameworks) have we lost sight of the other purposes of education? Should we be focussing more on the latter two dimensions?


Engaging methodologically with the new curriculum

Two dimensions: knowledge and pedagogy.

· What types of knowledge do [young] people need to meet the goals set out in the four capacities?
· What methods are best suited to achieve the four capacities?
· What sort of activities might foster decision-making capacity required of an active citizen?
· How might formative assessment be utilised to develop the sorts of meta-cognitive capacities required for successful learning ?
· How might dialogical learning promote a deep-seated understanding of relevant concepts and content?

Change

· What might impede change?
· What are the barriers to change?
· What are the factors which might facilitate change?
Culture: what existing notions of practice exist in this area, and how these complement and conflict with CfE
Structure: what relationships and systems exist internally and externally that may influence the enactment of new ideas ?
Agency: What new skills are required to engage with the change ? Which individuals are well placed to play major roles in engaging with the change?


Building Capacity

Once teachers are clear about the purposes of CfE and once the terrain for change has been mapped, we need to consider ‘what needs to be done to facilitate engagement with the innovation?'
· Timetabling arrangements
· Setting up work parties
· Designating key staff to take forward initiatives
· Allocating resources
· Providing additional CPD
· Creating networks and other spaces for dialogue
· Altering physical spaces (bringing together previously separate depts.)

At this stage attention should be given to accountability and the Outcomes and Experiences, but these should remain as slaves rather than masters of the main purposes of the change – not the drivers of change. Just doing nothing, or falling back on ‘best practice’ notions, prevents meaningful engagement with change.