ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that a ‘social-efficiency’ curriculum ideology dominates at present, which threatens to undermine the subject teacher’s curriculum making. The geography teacher’s concerns should be about curriculum – what to teach the young people and how this can be made to happen. Curriculum is sometimes accepted as a given thing – something conceived and written elsewhere, which the teacher simply delivers as efficiently as she can. But there are alternative perspectives on ‘curriculum’ coming from particular philosophies of education. Curriculum making emphasises teacher-student interaction more than ‘curriculum planning’ and ‘curriculum development’. Curriculum making encourages teachers to see curriculum as praxis – an ongoing enactment of balancing the three equally important educational ‘pillars’ or ‘sources of energy’. The notion of the teacher as a dynamic actor builds on a long-standing tradition of geography teachers as actors shaping the curriculum in ‘activist profession’ Sachs, notably in the Schools’ Council curriculum development projects before the statutory National Curriculum for England and Wales.
