{"id":8189,"date":"2022-09-17T09:24:08","date_gmt":"2022-09-17T09:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=8189"},"modified":"2022-09-17T09:24:32","modified_gmt":"2022-09-17T09:24:32","slug":"why-track-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2022\/09\/17\/why-track-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Teach the Future\u00a0review of the English National Curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Friday, I gave a brief input to the launch<\/a> of Teach the Future's\u00a0review of the English National Curriculum for key stages 3 and 4. \u00a0This covers subjects ranging from History to Art and Design, and uses a tracked changes<\/em> methodology which suggests where <\/em>and how <\/em>the national curriculum can be amended to include sustainability and respond to the climate and ecological crisis. \u00a0The\u00a0report was facilitated by a team of leading academics, with input from teachers, educators, and education experts.<\/p>\n

I was asked to explain why Teach the Future and its Adult Advisory Board commissioned this report. \u00a0This is what I said:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been asked to say a few words to explain why we set up this project.\u00a0 But first I\u2019d like to thank all those who\u2019ve been involved.\u00a0 Elsa Lee and Paul Vare, obviously, as co-ordinators, but everyone else as well \u2013 over 40 people.\u00a0 Thank you for doing such a splendid job in a short time and at a difficult period.\u00a0 NAEE was happy to support this work and we\u2019re pleased with the outcome.<\/p>\n

So why did Teach the Future do this?\u00a0 Well, if you\u2019ve ever written to the DfE asking for greater coverage of climate change and the ecological crisis we face \u2013 as many young people have \u2013 you\u2019ll have good insights into why.\u00a0 In response, you get a polite letter \u2013 most often from the minister of state for school standards.\u00a0 This points out that, as the national curriculum already covers climate and ecological issues, your request is simply misguided.\u00a0 Examples of the national curriculum coverage are usually then provided.<\/p>\n

And all such responses have the merit of being truthful \u00a0\u2013 \u00a0as far as they go.\u00a0 But this is the point, although there is national curriculum coverage, it just doesn\u2019t go far enough in either depth or breadth, in age-appropriate contents or in providing opportunities to explore issues.\u00a0 It\u2019s essentially a backward glance to a different time and simply looks out of date.<\/p>\n

Most of the DfE responses I\u2019ve seen just focus on what science and geography offer without mentioning the possibility that other subjects have important contributions to make.\u00a0 They also deny that students might learn more if links between subjects were made.\u00a0 They say, in effect, that although climate and environmental issues are multi-dimensional in real life, their study in schools cannot be.<\/p>\n

Young people say that they want to be educated in order to be involved in creating solutions to these great issues of our time.\u00a0 DfE says that of course you can do this\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 but only after you\u2019ve been educated and have left school.<\/p>\n

This is an odd message to send about the role of schools and it sits awkwardly with what\u2019s happening in further and higher education and how employers have changed their thinking.\u00a0 Not only does all this deny young people the experiences they\u2019re calling for, but also sends a message to school leaders, governors, and teachers.\u00a0 It says: \u00a0going beyond what we say isn\u2019t really important: you can do this if you want to, but you really don\u2019t need to.\u00a0 And this just serves to put schools off and undermines what committed teachers are already doing.\u00a0 This is clearly a problem as Teach the Future\u2019s research shows that 75% of teachers<\/a> feel they haven\u2019t received adequate preparation to educate students about these issues.<\/p>\n

Over the last few years, DfE has turned down numerous opportunities to change what the national curriculum says.\u00a0 So Teach the Future and its adult advisory board thought that it would be helpful to explore for itself what such change might usefully look like.\u00a0 That\u2019s to say, to ask experts to do this.\u00a0 And this is what has happened.\u00a0 And it\u2019s what Elsa, Paul and Alex will now be telling us about.<\/p>\n

Whether DfE will take any notice of their outcomes is a moot point; but in one sense, it\u2019s not important. \u00a0What this report does is useful in its own right.\u00a0 But it also lays down a marker for others to build on.\u00a0 I can only hope they do.<\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Friday, I gave a brief input to the launch of Teach the Future's\u00a0review of the English National Curriculum for key stages 3 and 4. \u00a0This covers subjects ranging from History to Art and Design, and uses a tracked changes...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}