ABSTRACT
If asked what education and schools are for, many would probably say that their purpose is to provide the young with knowledge and skills required for effective functioning and success in (an increasingly complex) society. If asked to specify such knowledge and skills further, they might mention the (more or less useful) things that they had learned at school – such as literacy and numeracy, history, physics, biology, woodwork, home economics and physical education – perhaps adding (especially if they themselves had not had these things at school) information and other technology and personal and social (especially perhaps health and sex) education. Any such list could also include poetry, music and religious education – though one could also guess that these might not be mentioned quite so often. Again, if prospective or trainee teachers were asked what they were ultimately hoping to teach, they would no doubt (if secondary teachers) mention a particular subject (such as English, mathematics or physical education) or (if primary teachers) a particular stage of child development (such as early years, lower primary or upper primary). This is all well and good, so far as it goes: after all, schools (as social institutions funded by tax payers) are responsible for equipping youngsters with individually and socially useful knowledge and skills and primary and secondary school teachers do and should want to teach what they take to be such knowledge and skills.
