ABSTRACT
One might readily recognize that Whitehead was an advocate for freedom and choice via school-based curriculum development and the freedom of the local educators to effect reforms democratically. Alas, the England of Whitehead’s day is not that of modern times, which resembles closely the American model of disempowering the school and teacher of curriculum development powers and responsibilities. Rather teachers perform more as functionaries in a top-down bureaucracy. It is my task to show something of the messy situation, particularly in schools and colleges that are embedded in the quality wars, the advent of technical rationality and the clash that has arisen when faced with a practical reflective driven model of education. There is a lot of waste and confusion. Philosophers and curriculum scholars must begin to debate the way out. In this chapter, my plan is to discuss critically:
1 a conception of curriculum and quality briefly; 2 the idea of school-based curriculum freedom that allows for curricular
and teacher development; 3 the enormous wastage of resources, particularly in teacher preparation
and retention; 4 differences in academic freedom and curriculum development for teachers
and professors.
