ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the 'what' and the 'why' of the curriculum. Education providers are made acutely aware of appropriate standards by regulatory bodies like the Health & Care Professions Council that sets out 'duties' for education providers. Teachers of all kinds should go beyond the primary socialisation and social control–focused curriculum aimed at children to reconsider the world of adults engaged with learning. Social science concepts and bodies of specialist knowledge are however ubiquitous, still seen as necessary and valuable within the contemporary curriculum. The chapter presents an example of the varied contributions that go towards the making of a curriculum at a particular time and in a particular place. Most research and theoretical work 'on' adult education and the adult education curriculum has in fact focused on learning, and on the nature of the student, the learner. The student centred learning initiative quite rightly focuses attention upon the student experience, and the published aims and objectives make that explicit.
