Rethinking the School Curriculum: Values, Aims and Purposes

In 2000, the school curriculum in England was equipped - for the first time in the country's history - with an extensive set of aims and purposes. In this book, leading experts in the teaching of school subjects examine the significance of the new aims for the reform of the curriculum. In two general introductory chapters John White discusses the validity of the aims and how they might be realized in schools. The remainder of the book focuses on subject specific areas and how these need to be brought into line with the new aims, so as to produce a more relevant and enjoyable curriculum experience for pupils, including more opportunities for choice of activities. The book concludes with suggestions about how government policy on the curriculum should now succeed. This portrayal of the school curriculum today and how it could be developed in line with the new aims will be of interest to those studying education with a particular focus on the areas of curriculum, assessment, school management, philosophy of education and the history of education.

John White is Professor of Philosophy of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London and has written extensively on the subject of the National Curriculum.