This is the 10th in our series of posts about the review of the national curriculum – the Francis Review. Previous posts can be found here. As ever with NAEE blogs, the views expressed are not necessarily those of the Association.
“Today the Curriculum and Assessment Review begins a national conversation, to ensure that a rich and broad education, the start that every parent wants for their children, is the experience of the many, not the privilege of a few.”
The above extract from education secretary Bridget Phillipson’s speech to this year’s Labour conference begs the question of what kind of curriculum should every parent want for their children. As regards the environment, those parents who have considered the question surely want the curriculum to introduce ethical principles that enable citizens to live sustainably with one another and rest of nature and foster an understanding of how global society might be governed in ways that reflect such principles. This post introduces green left ideas on education and schooling, suggests ways in which it might lobby the panel reviewing the national curriculum for England, and looks at the prospects for such lobbying being successful.
The green left and education
For educators on the green left, such as myself, it is the failure of the national curriculum in England to offer a realistic social education that is the major barrier to critical environmental and sustainability education. Research shows that both environmental and citizenship education have been marginalised in English secondary schools in recent decades and that what is provided fails to offer realistic explanations of why global society faces a sustainability crisis and what measures may be necessary to put it on a sustainable path. The key problem is that schooling continues to reproduce the dominant or hegemonic narrative of development and progress and excludes or marginalises those that threaten the interests of economic, political and cultural elites. Instrumental values are promoted over fundamental or universal values and social literacy (the ability to ‘read and write’ society) is sacrificed to achieving ‘success’ within the prevailing liberal capitalist mode of social organisation. This process is resisted by a significant number of students, teachers, and parents / carers who seek greater democracy in and through schooling and seek a curriculum that promotes reflection and action on the range of alternative futures enabled by new forms of technology and governance.
The green left draws on critical social theory to suggest that just and sustainable futures require a radical ecological and global democracy. Democracy should be a feature of all spheres of society (economy, politics and culture) at all scales from the local to the global. Citizens should exercise responsibility for others, including other species, across space and time (future generations) in return for universal rights. Such thinking and action is informed by global social theory that draws ideas from the global North and South and includes those of Indigenous peoples. These examine the causes and solutions to the current global crisis at a time when cannibal capitalism is devouring the planet and the hegemony of the USA and its allies is weakening along with the liberal capitalist international order.
The green left does not seek to indoctrinate school students with critical ideas but to ensure that these are introduced, considered, and debated along with mainstream ideas. Social, political and citizenship educators use critical pedagogyto this end and such pedagogy continues to develop along with critical social theory. Recent debates in curriculum theory on powerful knowledge do, for example, question modern knowledge, its epistemological and ontological assumptions and the need for powerful knowledge to go beyond empiricism, positivism, and such modern dualisms as that between society and nature.
Lobbying the review panel
Given that a review panel is likely to be hostile to green left ideas presented in the raw, their advocates should make their case in terms of ethics, democracy and citizenship. A ‘rich and broad’ curriculum should empower students by instilling widely accepted ethical principles and developing economic, political and cultural literacy in ways that foster global citizenship. Such an argument should appeal to the new Labour government but see my misgivings regarding its leadership outlined below. A focus on ethics and citizenship suggests that those reviewing the national curriculum for England should:
Consider the gains made by the previous Labour government. A framework for sustainable schools, a commitment to all schools becoming sustainable schools, and the global dimension and sustainable development as one of seven cross-curriculum dimensions (others included healthy lifestyles, enterprise, and community participation). The UK government remains committed to the UN’s sustainable development goals and this commitment should be reflected in the school curriculum. The Earth Charter and Unesco guidance on education for sustainable development and global citizenshipsupport the case for linking sustainability education to moral and social education.
Reflect on curriculum frameworks. Should a reviewed / reformed curriculum be subject based or integrated? School subjects have served to marginalise or exclude cross-curriculum dimensions and there is a strong case for both subjects and integration as in the Curriculum for Wales. This is based on areas of learning experience while that proposed by the Socialist Educational Association is based on domains of learning that include citizenship and ethics, and human actions and their environmental impacts. A subject like geography can claim to be integrated in that in draws on the earth and social sciences and the humanities. What matters in the end is whether curriculum guidance prompts the consideration of critical alongside mainstream ideas and fosters the knowledge, skills and values needed by global citizens.
Recognise that the neglect of social issues by a subject based curriculum has resulted in pressure groups lobbying for a range of adjectival educations: citizenship, environmental, development, global, health, human rights etc. These are best accommodated by a curriculum that is both subject based and integrated and focussed on global citizenship.
Be politically realistic: Concepts such as democracy, freedom and sustainability are contested and take on meaning within discourses advanced across the political spectrum. The curriculum should provide students with an introduction to these discourses, the means to recognise them at work in places and issues at a range of scales, and the opportunity to debate them amongst themselves and with others in the community. Previous frameworks for political literacy, introduced by a Labour secretary of state, provide guidance as does current literature on global citizenship education.
Seek a curriculum ‘for the many not the few’: This means the curriculum should acknowledge inequalities at all scales, promote environmental and social justice, and allow students to form their own opinions on such debates as those between capitalism / anti-capitalism, growth / degrowth, eco-centrism / technocentrism, and colonialism / de-colonialism, once they have considered mainstream and critical views on these and other related topics. Along with a need to de-colonise the curriculum there is a need to address its role in maintaining class inequalities as Phillipson suggests.
Make provision for local authorities and schools to develop local curricula based on national guidelines. The reviewed / reformed curriculum should ensure that all schools become sustainable schools and that there is ample scope for students to carry out investigations in and with the local environment / community.
Prospects
It is necessary to look at the nature of Labour’s leadership to assess the prospects of a reviewed / reformed national curriculum incorporating critical global citizenship education. Eagleton shows Starmer to be an ‘unabashed authoritarian’ who has dropped pledges he made at the time of his leadership bid and reversed democratic gains made under Corbyn. The party has been cleansed of socialist influence largely through the work of Labour Together a think-tank that includes the new secretaries of state for the environment and education, Steve Reed and Bridget Phillipson, among its members along with the chancellor Rachel Reeves. She appears to have abandoned her earlier commitments to the foundational economy and wealth taxes, is too ready to cling to Tory fiscal rules, and in advocating ‘growth’ pays too little attention to sustainability and the merits of degrowth. While some of the government’s policies are to be welcomed others show it to be uncaring and undemocratic. Its first 100 days have been marred by mismanagement, the acceptance of gifts, and failure to develop and execute a clear narrative.
While the forthcoming budget may make intentions clearer, there is currently not the commitment to economic democracy, wealth redistribution, the devolution of political power, experimentation with new forms of participatory democracy, and the regulation of social media, that the green left regards as key elements of a pathway to sustainability. The Greens and Independent Alliance are now to the left of Labour on some issues, and it seems that the campaign for the curriculum that ‘every parent wants for their child’ in that in helps put England on a path to sustainability, will have to continue and hopefully intensify. Left learning NGOs and teacher unions are key actors in this campaign.
………………………….
Click here to see an archive of John Huckle’s publications which outline critical approaches to geographical and environmental education developed over four decades. He can be contacted at john@huckle.org.uk