Happy New Year! As we settle into another lockdown, why not engage in a discussion about education?
For OFSTED educational progress now means ‘knowing more and remembering more’. Committing knowledge to long term memory is becoming the overarching goal of the schools system. The new Institute for Teaching will tell teachers that ‘Regular purposeful practice of what has previously been taught can help consolidate material and help pupils remember what they have learned’.
No-one disputes that knowledge is an important component in any curriculum. Because it is easily measurable, the Tories, though have made it the dominant aspect of the current curriculum. It has pushed out skills, creativity and critical thinking. The knowledge-rich curriculum has, with little debate, become the new orthodoxy and the government simply ignores other voices, asserting that there is no alternative. What is more, focussing on knowledge allows them to influence what knowledge is taught limiting history, literature and the arts to a mainly white ruling class perspective.
Prof Ken Jones now at the NEU working on curriculum and assessment will set the political context for our discussion. We will then hear from voices on the left in English and Maths Education before listening to Afzal Khan MP on the launch in Greater Manchester of his Diverse Curriculum Charter found here.
Melanie Griffiths, SEA Chair will preside over proceedings for this panel debate.
Date & Time: Wednesday 13 January @ 18:30
Location: Online via Zoom
To sign-up complete the Zoom Meeting Registration form
Please share widely with anyone whom you think may be interested.
In Solidarity
James Whiting (General Secretary SEA)
Socialist Educational Association 