ABSTRACT
In Part II of this book we have attempted to capture through the voices of the teachers the impact of the process of curriculum change upon them; what it felt like to be at the forefront of the change process. In this chapter we explore the links between their perceptions and two objectives of curriculum policy set in train by the Education Reform Act 1988. The two concern the ‘balanced and broadly-based’ curriculum and the assessment arrangements which, as we saw in Chapters 2 to 7, were a major focus for the teachers’ views. We develop our analysis by setting the subjective voices of the teachers against the more objective data reported in Chapter 2 in Part I of this book. We draw the conclusion that, at the stage when we were gathering the interview evidence, namely two years into the change process, there was less change and more continuity with previous practice in key aspects of the curriculum than the teachers thought. In respect of assessment there was substantial change, discontinuous with previous practice, as the teachers thought, but the move towards change was damaged by the political climate within which the teachers were operating. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of the analysis for the implementation of educational policy.
