Curriculum: Concepts and approaches

Perspective Article

Published on: May 16, 2019

9 min read

Curriculum studies has been in decline for some years in the UK. As an early career teacher in the 1990s, I was able to choose from a range of university Master’s-level programmes with a specialist focus on the curriculum. By 2019, only one university (the UCL Institute of Education) offers a dedicated curriculum studies Master’s degree. It is therefore heartening to see that the curriculum is back on the educational agenda across UK jurisdictions. This is in some respects due to new policy trajectories – in Scotland, Northern Ireland and, more recently, Wales – that actively construct teachers as professional curriculum-makers. This has led over time to increasingly nuanced discussion about curriculum by teachers and other educational professionals in those countries. In the past year, England has raised the status of the curriculum in professional discourse, as Ofsted has shifted its focus to the curriculum through, for example, its intent, implementation, impact initiative.

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This article was published in May 2019 and reflects the terminology and understanding of research and evidence in use at the time. Some terms and conclusions may no longer align with current standards. We encourage readers to approach the content with an understanding of this context.