Learning, Curriculum and Life Politics In the World Library of Educationalists, international experts themselves compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces – extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and practical contributions – so the world can read them in a single manageable volume. Readers will be able to follow themes and strands of the topic and see how their work contributes to the development of the field. Professor Ivor F. Goodson has spent the last 30 years researching, thinking and writing about some of the key and enduring issues in education. He has contributed over 40 books and 600 articles to the field. In Learning, Curriculum and Life Politics, Ivor Goodson brings together 19 key writings in one place. Starting with a specially written Introduction, which gives an overview of his career and contextualises his selection within the development of the field, the chapters cover: ● curriculum history and policy ● classroom pedagogy and strategies for professional development ● life history, narrative and educational change. This book not only shows how Ivor’s thinking developed during his long and distinguished career; it also gives an insight into the development of the fields to which he contributed. Ivor F. Goodson has recently joined the Von Hugel Institute at St Edmunds College, University of Cambridge. He is also Professor of Learning Theory at the Education Research Centre, University of Brighton. Currently he is Professor in residence at the University of Barcelona. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Education Policy and European Editor of Identity. He will be presented with the Michael Huberman Award for his educational research at the American Educational Research Association meeting in San Francisco in 2006. The work in this volume can be linked with the webpage www.ivorgoodson.com which contains a range of additional information and articles. Contributors to the series include: Richard Aldrich, Stephen J. Ball, John Elliott, Elliot W. Eisner, Howard Gardner, John K. Gilbert, Ivor F. Goodson, David Labaree, John White and E.C. Wragg. World Library of Educationalists series Other books in the series: Lessons from History of Education The selected works of Richard Aldrich Richard Aldrich Education Policy and Social Class The selected works of Stephen J. Ball Stephen J. Ball Reimagining Schools The selected works of Elliot W. Eisner Elliot W. Eisner Reflecting Where the Action Is The selected works of John Elliott John Elliott Development and Education of the Mind The selected works of Howard Gardner Howard Gardner Constructing Worlds through Science Education The selected works of John K. Gilbert John K. Gilbert Learning, Curriculum and Life Politics The selected works of Ivor F. Goodson Ivor F. Goodson The Curriculum and the Child The selected works of John White John White The Art and Science of Teaching and Learning The selected works of Ted Wragg E.C. Wragg Learning, Curriculum and Life Politics The selected works of Ivor F. Goodson Ivor F. Goodson First published 2005 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2005 Ivor F. Goodson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Goodson, Ivor. Learning, curriculum and life politics: the selected works of Ivor F. Goodson/Ivor F. Goodson. p. cm. 1. Curriculum planning – History. 2. Education – Curricula – Social aspects. 3. Teachers – History. I. Title. LB2806.15.C664 2005 375'.001–dc22 2005005630 ISBN 0-203-69878-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0–415–35219–3 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–35220–7 (pbk) To Andy For the good times, with all of my love. DAD CONTENTS Acknowledgements x Introduction: learning, curriculum and life politics 1 PART 1 Learning and curriculum 11 1 Learning and the pedagogic moment: extract from ‘the pedagogic moment’ 13 The roots of pedagogy 14 2 Coming to curriculum: extract from ‘reconstructing aspects of a teacher’s life’ 16 Extracts from a diary, 1973 16 Countesthorpe College 20 General lines of development 20 For the WC child 23 Coming to curriculum 24 Making connections 28 3 Towards an alternative pedagogy 31 Classroom learning 32 Alternative theories and practice 33 Towards an alternative pedagogy 35 Unauthorized methods 37 Some constraints and problems 39 4 Chariots of fire: etymologies, epistemologies and the emergence of curriculum 42 Antecedents and alternatives 48 Conclusion 51 5 Becoming an academic subject 52 Sociological and historical perspectives 52 The establishment and promotion of geography 56 ‘New geography’ as an academic discipline 61 Conclusion 64 viii Contents 6 On curriculum form 69 Conceptions of ‘mentalities’ 70 Three dichotomies 71 The contest over science 73 Continuities and complexities 75 A pattern of structuration 77 Conclusion 79 7 The making of curriculum 81 Modes of historical study 82 Developing studies of context: an historical instance of English schooling in the twentieth century 83 Structure and mediation: internal and external factors 84 Curriculum change as political process: an example of the process of academic establishment 87 8 Nations at risk and national curriculum 91 Ideology and identity 91 The national curriculum and national identity 94 National curriculum and social prioritizing 95 National curriculum and national power 98 Conclusion 103 9 Long waves of educational reform: extract from ‘Report to the Spencer Foundation’ 105 Introduction 105 Long waves of historical change 108 Long waves of educational change 110 Conclusion 127 PART 2 Methods 131 10 Towards a social constructionist perspective 133 Curriculum as prescription 133 The devil’s bargain: critiques and counters 134 Recent reactions to CAP 136 Towards a social constructionist perspective: from diagnosis to solution 140 11 History, context and qualitative methods 149 Life histories and curriculum history 150 School subjects and curriculum history 151 Critical episodes in a teacher’s life 153 The alternative vision: a retrospect 161 Conclusion 162 Critical questions 163 Contents ix 12 The story of life history 166 Reasons for the decline of the life history in early sociological study 169 From modernism to postmodernism 172 Conclusions 175 PART 3 Life politics 179 13 Preparing for post-modernity: storying the self 181 Preparing for post-modernity: the peril and promise 181 Storying the self 181 14 The story so far 187 Personal knowledge and the political 187 Personal knowledge and the cultural logic of post-modernity 187 The media context of personal knowledge 188 Storytelling and educational study 193 Personal knowledge and educational research 198 15 Action research and the reflexive project of selves 200 Origins and destinations 203 Teachers as intellectuals 205 Patterns of transcendence 207 Leaving teaching 209 Conclusion 211 16 Scrutinizing life stories 213 Scripts and storylines 221 17 Representing teachers: bringing teachers back in 223 The representational crisis 223 The narrative turn/the turn to narrative 224 Story and history 225 A story of action within a story of context 229 18 Sponsoring the teacher’s voice 232 Broadening our data base for studying teaching 235 Collaboration and teacher development 239 19 The personality of educational change 241 Memory loss 243 Mentoring loss 244 Teacher retention and recruitment 244 Conclusion 246 List of recent works 249 Index 254 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my colleagues at the Education Research Centre at the University of Brighton and the Von Hugel Institute at St Edmunds College, University of Cambridge. I should also like to thank the research assistants that have worked with me in a variety of research projects over the last decade or so notably: Martha Foote, Michael Baker, Dr Marshall Mangan, Dr Valerie Rea and Dr Chris Anstead. They have been invaluable collaborators and friends in the wide range of work under- taken during this time and their work fully informs many of the articles in this volume. I should also like to thank my secretary Anna Winskill for her good humour and patience during the compilation of this volume. It is a difficult and sometimes tedious task to compile such a large volume of collected work and she has endured this with a fine sense of humour, tenacity and skill. For readers requiring more information on collected work please visit my webpage which is www.ivorgoodson.com or contact me at [email protected] or [email protected] The following articles have been reproduced with the kind permission of the respective journals Becoming an Academic Subject. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 1981, 2(2): 163–180. Coming to Curriculum: Extract from ‘Reconstructing Aspects of a Teacher’s Life’. Article in process. Learning and The Pedagogic Moment: Extract from ‘The Pedagogic Moment’. Article in process. Long Waves of Educational Reform: Extract from ‘Report to the Spencer Foundation’. Submitted September 2003. Nations at Risk and National Curriculum. Journal of Education Policy, 1991, section in Handbook of the American Politics of Education Association, pp. 219–232. On Curriculum Form. Sociology of Education, 1992, 65(1): 66–75. Preparing for Post-modernity: Storying the Self. Educational Practice and Theory, 1998, 20(1): 25–31.