The root cause of the majority of environmental problems lies not in surface manifestations such as carbon dioxide and ozone, but with social and cultural factors that encourage people to consume far more than they need. Environmental education can be divided into two main kinds: micro approaches, which the majority of current approaches fall under, and macro approaches, which are currently emerging. Micro environmental education considers environmental problems in terms of surface manifestations, and proposes micro-changes such as recycling to address them, without questioning the possibility of a cultural shift away from consumerism. This form of environmental education typically seeks to change the behaviour of social actors by building and appealing to their environmental consciousness in the expectation that they will act rationally. It is argued here that this expectation fails to recognise that social actors are subject to plural rationalities and that their behaviour is driven by complex interrelationships with other social actors. As a result, micro environmental education, despite its best intentions, often fails to adequately address and change the environmentally unsustainable behaviour of the social actors it targets. This thesis firstly aims to uncover why micro approaches to environmental education exist and persist. Primary qualitative research with environmental educators drawn from formal, free-choice and accidental channels of environmental education was conducted and is presented alongside a review of the historical development of environmental education. The second aim of this thesis is to argue against a reliance on micro approaches to environmental education and environmentalism in general and propose instead that environmental education becomes embedded within a wider macro approach. Macro approaches seek to change behaviour through the development of a critical understanding of interrelationships among social actors, leading ultimately to environmentally positive changes in them. Findings from the primary research also help reveal the conditions necessary for macro approaches to emerge from the current environmental education infrastructure. The thesis concludes that macro environmental education is both necessary and possible and calls for further research into its development and practice.

No description available.

The research undertaken was an ethnographic study of a single junior school was founded on the premise that children have considerably more knowledge about ‘citizenship’ and democratic processes than their teachers appreciate or are willing to acknowledge. It was my contention that in developing a citizenship programme and scheme of work in school this should be taken account of to inform, not only the curriculum, but also teaching and learning. My concern was that without doing so, paradoxically, citizenship might have more to do with social control than the intended outcome of empowerment. A key finding of the study was that teachers taught social and moral responsibility rather than rights and that responsibility was inextricably linked to pupils’ behaviour. It also found that much of the information, knowledge and understanding, about democratic processes held by children appeared to be caught rather than taught. The study also showed that teachers taught about ‘safe issues’ whilst avoiding any teaching relating to local, national or world political events that might be contentious or controversial. From the findings a theoretical model for citizenship was developed that shows the relationship between citizenship knowledge, social control, empowerment, and teaching and learning. This study has contributed to the developing understanding of citizenship as it has been implemented in primary schools in England. The evidence suggests that unless teachers take account of pupils’ prior knowledge of citizenship they will by default indeed be teaching for social control rather than empowerment.

There is an assumption that the ways in which teachers engage with policy are known, yet there is very little evidence to demonstrate how teachers engage with new policies and how this engagement patterns their approach to curriculum development (Kulinna, Brusseau, Cothran, & Tudor-Locke, 2012). Previous research has not clearly distinguished between teachers’ understanding of policy discourses and their subsequent enactment of curriculum. An opportunity to do so arose with the introduction in Scotland of a new curriculum. This new curriculum, Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), intended to provide a framework within which teachers would exercise professional judgment and engage in School Based Curriculum Development (SCBD). The Scottish Government determined the overarching policy for education and Local Authorities were responsible for overseeing the development of the curriculum. CfE intended to empower teachers by encouraging innovation with the proviso that key experiences deemed to be central for pupil learning were addressed. This study aimed to provide insights into the process of SBCD in physical education as teachers prepared for the first year of teaching CfE. The research questions therefore focused on developing an understanding of how the lead teachers tasked with designing the physical education curriculum, within a newly formed curriculum area of health and wellbeing, had engaged with policy and enacted the curriculum. In order to gain a fine-grained understanding of curriculum leaders’ experiences of SBCD, this study drew its sample from a single local authority. The study adopted a research design of repeated interviews with nine teachers who led curriculum development in their respective schools. Two related orders of SBCD as reported and experienced by curriculum leaders emerge from the study: first order SBCD pertains to the process of engagement with policy discourses; and second order refers to the activities associated with the enactment of the curriculum. The findings reported in this thesis showed that events organised by the local authority to support teachers led to the development of a professional learning community which facilitated teachers' active engagement in SBCD. This active engagement required careful tailoring of new developments to the constraints and affordances of their individual schools. First order SBCD was a complex process of engagement/active interpretation and reinterpretation of policy as teachers considered the context for SBCD. These processes led to teachers viewing the broad aims of CfE as a reinforcement of existing practice and curricula. Discourses of accountability appear to have had the most influence in curriculum design decisions, overshadowing the discourses of health and wellbeing within CfE. Teachers’ professional judgements were influenced by regimes of accountability at national and local levels which patterned but did not determine schools’ and teachers’ responses. This is because second order SBCD reflected teachers’ perceptions that a wholescale transformation of physical education was not required or possible within the constraints of their contexts. Curriculum leaders concentrated their efforts on covering the broad aims of CfE and the ‘experiences and outcomes’ outlined in CfE through focusing on their approach to teaching and learning the existing physical education curricula. Thus, they saw health and wellbeing as only one element of physical education rather than as the key focus of their enactment of the curriculum. Teachers’ collective efforts at curriculum enactment were therefore depicted as pragmatic innovation as this encapsulates their responses to policy discourses as they developed a curriculum that would in their view effectively address the broad aims and purposes of CfE while taking account of the constraints of their local context. In contrast to preceding work, a more nuanced account of teacher agency is revealed; teachers were neither wholly the subject of policy discourse nor were they wholly free agents. It follows that if policymakers are seeking transformational change in physical education and an orientation of the subject towards health and wellbeing, there is a need not only for mechanisms to support professional learning, but also for regimes of accountability such as the inspection framework to reflect the policy aims of health and wellbeing more closely.

There has been concern for more than a decade that pupils do not have sufficient knowledge, skills and understanding of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at the end of compulsory schooling. This research investigates approaches to the organisation of the ICT curriculum, teaching and learning, management, staffing and resources that are associated with high levels of ICT capability among 14-16 year olds in four secondary schools, each of which organised the delivery of the ICT curriculum in different ways. These were discrete or ‘centralised’ ICT, cross curricular ICT; and hybrids of these, the ‘skills core’ and ‘kick start’ models (NCET, 1996, p7). There are detailed case studies of each school, and a comparative analysis, which includes an assessment of the relative ICT capability of their pupils. The more and less successful schools are characterised, and there is discussion of the issues arising and those areas requiring further research. Features associated with high levels of ICT capability included: • ICT was taught as a discrete subject throughout key stages 3 and 4, and pupils were entered for GCSE ICT at the end of key stage 4 • There were well planned programmes of study for discrete ICT but the use of ICT across the curriculum was not planned in detail • ICT teachers were more aware of the differences between teaching ICT and other subjects • There was strong leadership by senior management; the HoD ICT was enthusiastic and approachable; and there were opportunities for all teachers to be involved in decision making • There was a management committee that included senior managers, the HoD ICT and ICT teachers; and a user group with representatives from other subject departments • Teachers of other subjects could not avoid using ICT in the classroom and for aspects of school administration • Schools valued their investment in ICT resources • There were significantly more specialist ICT teachers employed by the school • There was an adequate quantity of modern ICT resources • Higher levels of bid based funding were acquired

This thesis deals with two related questions. The first relates to a critical inquiry into the processes of curriculum creation and formation within a medical school which has undergone a significant curriculum revision. I explore the notion that such processes can be understood as a form of practice in which the relationship between content and process is held together by what is explored in the thesis as an indivisible, paradoxical tension. Exploring curriculum as a kind of process is a novel approach in a school steeped in the traditions of the natural sciences. The common metaphors for curriculum in this setting refer to blueprints, models, behavioural competencies and objective standards. These are all founded on the belief in an objective observer who can maintain some form of distance between themselves and the subject in question. Issues of method are, therefore, central to my explorations of how we might, instead, locate curriculum in social processes and acts of evaluation involving power relations, conflict and the continuous negotiation of how it is we work together. The paradox of process and content in this way of understanding is that participants in curricular practice are simultaneously forming and being formed by their participation. In this way of thinking, it makes no sense to say one can either “step back” to “reflect” on their participation or that there is a way to approach participation “objectively.” The other question I address in this thesis has to do with the emergence of excellence. By emergence, I refer to thinking in the complexity sciences which attempts to explain phenomena which have a coherence which cannot be planned for or known in advance. “Excellence” is a kind of idealization which has no meaning until it is taken up and “functionalized” within specific settings and situations. In the setting of participating in curriculum formation, excellence may be understood as one possible outcome of persisting engagement and continuous inquiry which itself influences the ongoing conversation of how excellence is recognized and understood. In other words, excellence emerges in social processes as a theme simultaneously shaping and being shaped by curricular practice. This research was initiated as a result of a mandate to establish a program which could demonstrate excellence in the area of relationships in health care. The magnitude of this mandate felt overwhelming at the time and raised a lot of anxiety. I found that the traditional thinking regarding participation in organizational change processes (which, within my setting, could be understood as “set your goal and work backwards”) did not satisfactorily account for the uncertainties and surprises of working with colleagues to create something new. The method of inquiry can be read as another example of a process / content paradox through which my findings regarding curriculum and excellence emerged. This method involved taking narratives from my experience as an educator and clinician and a participant in varied forms of curricular processes and inquiring into them further by both locating them within relevant discourses from sociology, medical education and organizational studies and also sharing them with peers in my doctoral program as well as colleagues from my local setting. This method led to an inquiry and series of findings which was substantively different from my starting point. This movement in thinking offers another demonstration of an emergent methodology in which original findings are “discovered” through the course of inquiry. These findings continue to affect my practice and my approach to inquiry within the setting of medical education. The original contributions to thinking in medical education occur in several ways. One is in the demonstration of a research method which takes my own original experience seriously and seeks to challenge taken for granted assumptions about a separation of process and content, instead exploring the implications of understanding these in a relation of paradox. By locating my work within social processes of engagement and recognition, I explore the possibility that excellence can also be understood as an emergent property of interaction which is under continuous negotiation which itself forms the basis for further recognition and exploration of “excellence.” The social processes which shape and are shaped by “excellence” are fundamental to the practice of curriculum itself. Both curricula and “excellence” emerge within the interactions of people with a stake in the desired outcomes as the product of continued involvement and consideration of ongoing experience. Finally, a process view of medical education is presented as a contribution to understanding the work of training physicians who are comfortable with the uncertainties and contingencies involved in the humane care of their patients.

This thesis examines the experience of one English high school in the birthing pangs of citizenship education, a mandatory entitlement introduced into English schools in September 2002. The project traces a series of developments over a period of four years and documents my search, as a practitioner-researcher, for a meaningful way to deliver citizenship education within my own school. Staff, parents, governors and students (aged 13 years to 17 years) all contribute towards this project in providing both qualitative and quantitative data. While this research uses a case study approach it also draws upon a sample that extends beyond the immediate school community - this is done in the quest to provide an understanding in the stimuli for active citizenship and probes the perceptions of Members of the Westminster Parliament in office between 2003 and 2004. While many of the findings are generated from a mixture of interviews and questionnaires, a period of quasi-experimentation within the classroom also provides data for discussion. This research provides insight into some of the problems associated with launching a centrally-imposed initiative at school level. It adds to the literature on citizenship education by providing a variety of evidence from the perceptions of an educational community, as well as offering information on the possible effectiveness of differing approaches to citizenship education. In particular, it indicates that efforts to generate a culture of active citizenship might have greater appeal when schools can create not just confident, secure and value-conscious young people, but ones who move in circles outside of their comfort zones. This project also demonstrates the potential value of a mixed-methods approach to practitioner-research. As a separate feature it adds to the knowledge-base on political socialisation.

The primary objective of this study is to identify the perspectives of the stakeholders on the business curriculum, and the curriculum gaps between them. While the perspectives can be captured on a few continuum, such as the ‘critical’-‘managerialist’ continuum (Macfarlane and Perkins, 1995), this study chose to measure the perspectives of the stakeholders on the ‘about business’-‘for business’ continuum (Tolley, 1983). The study collected primary data from the business lecturers, the business alumni, and the business students of the case institution. The data were collected from the target respondents via a constructed, pilot-tested and reliable questionnaire. The questionnaire made it possible to measure the perspectives of the stakeholders in terms of ‘about business’ and ‘for business’. The results confirmed that the lecturers have a high ‘about business’ orientation (mean = 4.25 out of 5). The ‘about business’ mean score of the alumni is 3.70 and the mean score for the students is 3.71. It is surprising that the lecturers scored high in ‘for business’ (mean = 3.88 out of 5), even higher than for the alumni (mean = 3.35) and the students (mean = 3.38). The t-test procedures confirmed the curriculum gap in terms of ‘about business’ between the lecturer and the alumni is significant (t=4.47, p=0.001); and between the lecturers and the students is also significant (t=4.45, p=0.001). The curriculum gap in terms of ‘for business’ between the lecturers and the alumni is significant (t=3.80, p=0.001); and between the lecturers and the students is significant (t=4.06, p=0.001). Both the ‘about business’ score and the ‘for business’ score of the lecturers are higher than those for the alumni and the students, indicating that the lecturers intend to provide a business curriculum to educate the students for life and at the same time preparing the students for employment. Although there is no cause for concern in this respect, the lecturers are recommended to collaborate with the stakeholders in order to satisfy the expectations of all stakeholders concerned.

Through a singular case study, this research enquiry seeks to explore teacher perceptions about the development of a concept-based curriculum program (called as the Conceptual Curriculum by the school), in the context of an International Baccalaureate (IB) World school in the Middle East, and the intended and unintended outcomes of the initiative. The study employs Bernstein’s (1975) theories of classification and framing, and curriculum recontextualization, as an analytical framework to interpret findings. The study is informed through methods such as reading and analyzing of curriculum documents, conducting semi-structured interviews, and the distribution of a web-based questionnaire to teachers. Findings in this research inquiry revealed that, though teachers expressed the experience of creating and delivering the Conceptual Curriculum as sometimes being challenging and frustrating, a vast majority of the teachers prefer a flexible curriculum framework versus a prescriptive curriculum. However, findings also revealed that, though teachers seem to enjoy the freedom and flexibility of working with broad curricular frameworks as opposed to prescriptive curricula, there seem to be some fundamental questions pertinent to curriculum recontextualization remaining unanswered, for which perhaps teachers seek answers from qualified curriculum development personnel. Findings reveal that when broad curricular frameworks get recontextualized, the lack of consensus amongst teachers on what counts as essential knowledge is often a matter of concern. Findings reveal that in curriculum recontextualization, when having to negotiate between a “multiplicity of pedagogic fields” (Cambridge, 2011, p. 129) teachers seem to be inherently aligning to something that is a “crystal clear benchmark” such as the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB DP), as opposed to something that is more flexible and open-ended such as the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP). The disciplinary focus of the Conceptual Curriculum and the tendency of teachers to align more towards the IB DP rather than the IB PYP (even in lower grades such as 7 and 8) has thus resulted in a quick transition from the “weakly classified” (Bernstein 1971, p.49) inter-disciplinary IB PYP curriculum to a “strongly classified” (Bernstein 1971, p.49) Conceptual Curriculum with disciplinary focus. Findings from this study reveal that teachers see the value and purpose in teaching for conceptual understanding, but this, when coupled with having to choose curriculum content and developing a coherent curriculum has made the experience both challenging and burdensome for them. Findings also reveal that practical agendas of the school, such as addressing limited time and staffing issues assume priority over lofty ideals when the curriculum is recontextualized, thereby indicating that school-based curriculum initiatives lose rigor and form, in the cracks of everyday practice. Findings in this study thus suggest that when teachers are offered the possibility of working with flexible curricular frameworks, realities of everyday practice take over. This often leads to teachers self-prescribing the curriculum, thereby making the process self-mandated, which in effect defeats the very purpose of the school-based curriculum development initiative undertaken.

This thesis is concerned with the ways in which curriculum continuity and progression of children’s learning occurs in the geography curriculum both within and between Key Stages 2 and 3. It explores the current attempts to achieve continuity and progression within and between these two Key Stages as well as the extent of cross-phase liaison in four Local Education Authorities (LEAs) in the Midlands. To set curriculum continuity and progression in context, a consideration of the geography being taught and delivered in primary and secondary schools is undertaken and the impact of pressures upon the Geography National Curriculum at Key Stages 2 and 3 are investigated. To understand the present nature and status of geography in primary and secondary schools, the place of geography as a school subject both prior to and following the introduction of the Geography National Curriculum is examined. In addition, the degree of continuity and progression that has existed during these periods is evaluated, together with previous attempts at cross-phase liaison in geography. The thesis concludes with an analysis of the ways in which continuity, progression and cross-phase liaison within and between Key Stages 2 and 3 might be enhanced in the future.