Teach Secondary - Issue 13.2

focused on knowledge for a while. 2019 saw the introduction of the new English Baccalaureate performance measure, encouraging pupils to study a range of traditional, knowledge-oriented, academic subjects up to 16, including English language, literature, maths, science and geography or history, as well as an ancient or a modern foreign language. All this seems educationally sound to me. At the same time, a new Education Inspection Framework directed Ofsted inspectors to focus in particular on the curriculum, and on howwell teachers’ structuring and sequencing of curriculum subjects fostered the acquisition of knowledge. I remember being inspected under this framework myself, and having a useful discussion with a lead inspector (and former English teacher) about how I’d decided to sequence knowledge within my film classes. It was a productive conversation that required me to justify my organisation of knowledge for students, to somebody sensitive to the particularities of my subject. Cultural implications Sadly, however, in recent years we’ve seen England’s education policy start to drift. Under successive Conservative governments there’s been a growing focus on moral and political issues, at expense of knowledge. The most notable curriculum change I can identify in this period has been the introduction of a new, mandatory curriculum subject called Relationships, Sex and Health Education – a ‘subject’ which, to me, appears devoid of any actual knowledge content, and instead resembles an exercise in state-sanctioned moral and political indoctrination. Opinions of the earlier knowledge turn in English education policy remain divided. Progressivist critics argue that Gove’s policy stance was old-fashioned, nostalgic, too focused on traditional subjects and attacked teachers’ professionalism by dictating what they should teach. Some traditionalists meanwhile viewGove’s reforms has having failed to address the core problem– that state school teachers are implacably hostile to academic knowledge. I’mnot convinced by either criticism. It might be culturally (if not politically) conservative to suggest there are bodies of valuable knowledge from the past to which every generation should be entitled – yet the cultural implications of this position are, in fact, radical, as it’s only through engagement with established knowledge that successive generations can innovate intellectually. Nor do I see state school teachers as ‘implacably hostile to knowledge’, or comparable to an unthinking ‘blob’. The young people that joinmy classes each year have generally been well educated by their former teachers and are hungry to learn new things. That suggests that at least something is working within the English state school system. Counter- revolutionaries? Yet as of now, in 2024, it appears many are once again seeking to challenge the position of academic knowledge within compulsory state education. A recent report from the (unelected) House of Lords’ cross-party Education for 11-16 Year Olds Committee, for example, states that education “ Now prioritises a restricted programme of academic learning, delivered through a narrow set of subjects and teaching styles ”. It also claims that it was told, “ repeatedly that this approach fails to take account of wider societal and economic shifts. ” (see bit.ly/ ts131-N2) If, as now seems very likely indeed, Labour is soon elected into office, it has made clear that it intends to counter Gove’s revolution. The party’s recently published its ‘Let’s Get Britain’s Future Back’ mission document (see bit.ly/ ts132-TP1), which argues for a broadening of the school curriculum, the adoption of a more vocational focus and introducing content that “Reflects the issues and diversities of our society so that ... every child is represented.” I’d argue that the interests of every English child would be best met by providing themwith access to powerful knowledge. In this election, I therefore won’t be voting Tory, as they’ve made a mess of my country. And I won’t be voting Labour either, since in broad terms they’re proposing more of the same. I believe that both the Lords Committee and Labour are wrong to devalue academic education, though unlike Gove, I intend to voice my opposition to their mistaken ideas respectfully, in the forthcoming election. Those who devalue traditional forms of academic knowledge within education are acting from a legitimate, yet mistaken educational perspective. With knowledge being once more pushed out ABOUT THE AUTHOR Toby Marshall is an A Level film studies teacher IN BRIEF What’s the issue? The ‘knowledge-oriented’ curriculum reforms of the early 2010s have had demonstrable staying power, but a growing number of voices are now calling for what remains of those changes to be undone. What’s being said? Progressivists argue that said reforms have diminished teacher autonomy and perpetuated old-fashioned ideas of what a ‘good’ education is, while many traditionalists continue to hold certain (misplaced) assumptions around teachers’ miltancy. What’s really happening? Both sides fail to properly recognise the radical, genuinely transformative impact that tried and trusted knowledge handed down through successive generations can have on young people’s learning. The takeaway If, as seems likely, a new Labour government is elected to power and scrubs away what remains of Gove’s reforms, the case for a knowledge-rich curriculum will need to be fought for – because the political winds don’t change the fundamental benefits it can bestow. of our political discussions of education, its defenders will need to fight hard to bring it back in. The Tories are political toast, and quite right too – but the case for knowledge must be renewed. 13 teachwire.net/secondary H O T TO P I C