ABSTRACT
The introduction of the first National Curriculum in England and Wales as part of the Education Reform Act in 1988 heralded important changes in conceptions of curriculum in English schools. Curriculum thinking since the mid-twentieth century had moved away from defining curriculum simply as syllabus content and recognized the need to consider the process of teaching and learning within the framework of a curriculum system. However, the 1988 Act changed the direction of curriculum development by dramatically reducing the role of teachers in curriculum decision-making. It also brought with it a new curriculum vocabulary. In particular, the term delivery has become ubiquitous. Although the DES (1989) claim that the National Curriculum is not intended to dictate how schools and individual teachers deliver the curriculum, we are reminded that the metaphors we use ‘shape our conception of the problem we study’ (Eisner, 1982: 6). A curriculum that is delivered conjures up images of teachers presenting packages of information as opposed to developing critical thinking in their pupils. A curriculum that is delivered embraces simplistic pedagogy based on a transmission-reception model with little regard given to the process of learning. A curriculum that is delivered is seen to be straightforward to assess, requiring only the measurement of the extent to which the information passed on has been retained by the recipients. Whitaker sums up the past fifteen years of educational reform:
scarce attention has been given to the dynamics of learning, the methodologies of teaching and to the vital relationship between pupils and their teachers in classrooms and schools.
(Whitaker, 1995: 7)