ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the content or curriculum of any educational system is influenced by historical, political and social factors. It reviews the way in which a government-regulated National Curriculum has been introduced in parts of the UK. The chapter analyses the ways in which the organisation of knowledge becomes part of the pedagogic task of all teachers. Curriculum is inextricably linked with contemporary social and ideological movements. A subject-based specification for the curriculum was introduced covering both primary and secondary schools. A sense of exploration unfettered by time limits and age-related tests must be brought back into the curriculum if schools are to contribute significantly to developing articulate, confident and flexible young people. There have been strong arguments that curriculum planning and teaching focus excessively on the former, particularly in formal school contexts. The main task of teachers becomes to transpose the context knowledge they possess into forms that are pedagogically powerful.
