Written at a time of uncertainty about the implications of the English
government's curriculum policies, Knowledge and the Future School
engages with the debate between the government and large sections of the
educational community. It provides a forward-looking framework for head
teachers, their staff and those training teachers to use when developing
the curriculum of individual schools in the context of a national
curriculum.
While explaining recent ideas in the sociology of educational knowledge,
the authors draw on Michael Young's earlier research with Johan Muller
to distinguish three models of the curriculum in terms of their
assumptions about knowledge, referred to in this book as Future 1,
Future 2 and Future 3. They link Future 3 to the idea of 'powerful
knowledge' for all pupils as a curriculum principle for any school,
arguing that the question of knowledge is intimately linked to the issue
of social justice and that access to 'powerful knowledge' is a necessary
component of the education of all pupils.
Knowledge and the Future School offers a new way of thinking about the
problems that head teachers, their staff and curriculum designers face.
In charting a course for schools that goes beyond current debates, it
also provides a perspective that policy makers should not avoid.
