A Curriculum for Excellence...

When A Curriculum for Excellence was announced in Scotland I thought that it sounded like the best move forward ever taken by national education system...in my experience at any rate.

The idea that teachers may once again regain some independence of thought and be freed from the restrictions of teaching to examinations was exciting. Obviously such a step change (you hear that phrase all the time but what does it actually mean) momentous revamp of a curriculum would take long hard work, massive interagency negociation and huge amounts of goodwill on all sides.

As we approach the advent of it's installation slowly but surely those in charge of education are beginning to show their hand. For instance, my local authority has drawn up its own version of a Curriculum framework which reflects much of what has been said in the documentation surrounding ACfE. In many ways it also conveniently ignores some of the principles stated in Building the Curriculum 3, such as the importance of discrete subjects in the Secondary curriculum.When A Curriculum for Excellence was announced in Scotland I thought that it sounded like the best move forward ever taken by national education system...in my experience at any rate.

The idea that teachers may once again regain some independence of thought and be freed from the restrictions of teaching to examinations was exciting. Obviously such a step change (you hear that phrase all the time but what does it actually mean) momentous revamp of a curriculum would take long hard work, massive interagency negociation and huge amounts of goodwill on all sides.

As we approach the advent of it's implementation slowly but surely those in charge of education are beginning to show their hand. For instance, my local authority has drawn up its own version of a Curriculum framework which reflects much of what has been said in the documentation surrounding ACfE. In many ways it also conveniently ignores some of the principles stated in Building the Curriculum 3, such as the importance of discrete subjects in the Secondary curriculum.

Many of these ideas/desires are going to require a large time commitment (outside of the classroom) to enable them to be implemented. What is the one thing the money set aside for ACfE will not pay for...time. To cap it all my establishment is officially over staffed and the authority has told all schools that they must staff to formula...period (or should that be full stop.)

In a nutshell next session we are going to be extremely tightly staffed, the workload is (probably) going to increase as ACfE sets in (although I for one don't believe that it has to...but that's another post) and nothing concrete and CREATIVE  will get done PROPERLY.

UNLESS teachers take charge.......

Comments

[Coach Canada]

Thanks for taking this opportunity to discuss this, I feel fervently about this and I like learning about this subject.

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A curriculum of excellence was a great idea but slowly we saw that is another educational chimera.

[TGSBloggers]

Thanks for your comment. We do indeed need to grasp this leadership opportunity by taking an active role in its evolution. Teachers need to read the stuff that comes at them such as BC3 etc. We need to be informed and bring our professional experience to bear on those who lead us by saying what we think will work and what will not. The profession as a whole has to engage and make it work for them. This is what I mean by taking charge.

[CR]

I totally agree with you!
ACfE is a fantastic opportunity for education. Abshire's response to it has so far been very disappointing. I am on the CfE committee at school and so far all we have discussed is one cross curricular event that will take place. Teachers need to embrace the leadership opportunity and push for change in the right direction. However, the majority of teachers appear in the dark over its principles or underlying research and seem only able to say "wooly" when asked their opinion of it.

How do you suggest we can ensure that "teachers take charge"?