The Research On Making Of National Curriculum Policy In Britain (1976-1988)

The Education Reform Act of 1988 was the most important and far-reaching piece of educational law-making for England and Wales sine the Education Act of 1944. It altered the basic power structure of the education system. It increased the powers of the Secretary of State for Education and Science. It restored to the central government powers over the curriculum which had been surrendered between the Wars. Not only did it strengthen the central government's role in education, it introduced important limitations on the functions of the local education authorities, who were forced to give greater autonomy to schools and governing bodies. Also, the content about National Curriculum and its assessment occupied the front twenty-five sections of the Education Reform Act of 1988, and the National Curriculum as well as the Grant-Maintained School Policy was called to be the two pillars of the Education Reform Act of 1988.The debate on National Curriculum Policy has never been ceased in the academic and education circles in England and Wales. It mainly about the necessity to offer the national centralised curriculum, the affiliation of the curriculum power and many other problems such as the assessment system.This thesis tries to make a comprehensive research on the National Curriculum Policy, and in order to achieve that, the author has chosen the period between the speech of James Callaghan in 1976 which aroused the National Debate and the promulgation of Education Reform Act in 1988 to make clear the background, the ideologies, the process of policy-making and the implementations of the National Curriculum Policy.The thesis contains three parts: introduction, text and epilogue. The introduction is about the sources and meaning of this topic, as well as the summary of former academic research, the elaboration of academic points and definition of related conception.The text can be divided into four sections. The first section elaborates on the background of the National Curriculum Policy. The author believes that 1973 Economic Crisis made the government and society to reflect on the quality of education and the curriculum reform come to schedule. It was also the inner requirements of Education Equalization and the inevitable results of comprehensive movement in 1960s and 1970s. Thatcherism is the impetus of the policy as it combined New Conservatism and New Liberalism techniquely, as well as the central control and liberal economy and market policy. The acceleration of European integration made England realize that it is essential to simulate the education system of mainland and carry out the centralised curriculum. The second section analyses the ideologies behind the curriculum policy, and introduces the core curriculum of Western countries, Lawton's cultural analysis theory and the National Curriculum as the central control from the views of professional and bureaucratic. The three core curriculums in the national curriculum are English, math and science, which Margaret Thatcher mainly advocates. In the 1960s and 1970s, according to the British education development trend, British curriculum theory scholars called on the government and society to set common curriculum, and Professor Lawton believes that British working class and middle class have a common culture, by the way of cultural analysis, and therefore the common curriculum can be applied in Britain middle and primary school. Unfortunately, there is a big gap between the common curriculum assumptions based on Lawton's cultural analysis theory and the realistic national curriculum policy. The formulation of the National Curriculum Policy ended at the power game between the heads of government. The third section divides the formulation and development of National Curriculum Policy into three periods:the Ruskin speech and National Debate(1976-1981), during which period the speech and Debate set a series of legislation for the formulation of National Curriculum Policy, and the research results of Her Majesty's Inspectorate were also an important factor; the critical period of the fomulation(1981-1986) , Education Secretary Keith Joseph set a blueprint for the details of National Curriculum, at the same time he brought many chaos for the preparation; the enforcement of implementation(1986-1988), in which period the Education Secretary Kenneth Baker got his broad and balanced curriculum included in the Act by his force and skills. The Fourth section makes an analysis on the implementations of the National Curriculum Policy from the perspectives of expected results and existing problems.The national curriculum has been initiated with pronouncements casting national regeneration in terms of links to the economy, industry and commerce, in particular the so-called 'wealth creating' sector. Yet in practice the balance of subjects in the national curriculum suggest that questions of national identity and control have been pre-eminent, rather than industrial or commercial requirments. Behind the rhetorical priority given to economic revival, two other agendas have been discerned. First is the reconstitution of a traditional subjects-based curriculum. The second agenda in the UK is one of establishing new modalities of control over schooling on behalf of the nation-state. At last the thesis concludes that as an important content of the public services, curriculum should be the outcome of the power game and interest integration among Parties, professionals, teachers and parents.