ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on four groups of issues: relationships between schools on the one hand and parents or local community representatives on the other, and the effect of these relationships on the curriculum; increases in central influence on the curriculum; school-based curriculum development; and accountability. The legal position is clear: the control of curriculum does not officially lie with the teaching profession but with the community, acting through its elected and appointed representatives on education committees and governing bodies. The objectives are grouped under four headings: careers; everyday life; self-development; interests and awareness. It would seem strange to leave the study of curriculum in its social context without mentioning accountability. It is a word that is interpreted in very different ways; one of the ways of interpreting it has concerned with the Assessment of Performance Unit.
