Curriculum Change in English Schools: Educating Working-Class Children

Abstract

This paper presents a summary and political analysis of curriculum change in English schools, with a particular focus on how working-class children are educated. It first examines, briefly, the period from 1870 (compulsory elementary education) to 1945 (secondary schools for all), and then in some greater detail significant progressive reforms up to the 1970s. Finally, examining the period from the 1988 Education Reform Act, the contrast and interplay between neoliberal and neoconservative policies are discussed. The impact of high-stakes accountability on working-class pupils is examined, and particularly on the increasing numbers growing up in poverty. The paper seeks to offer concepts and ideas to shed light on what is happening in other education systems, however different the specific chronology and politics.