Curriculum making for social justice in a rapidly changing world - Research Symposium

This research symposium will bring together researchers, educators and policymakers to engage with a series of provocations and propositions for socially just curriculum making. The program includes six short research-based provocations, a panel discussion and the sharing of expertise between curriculum theorists, curriculum policymakers and curriculum workers (teachers and other practitioners). It will explore the role of curricular justice in diverse educational contexts, bringing together the rich collective expertise of participants, with the aim to develop a manifesto for socially just curriculum in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world.

Provocations

1. Teachers as curriculum-makers for socially just schooling | Martin Mills (Queensland University of Technology), Glenda McGregor (Griffith University) & Stewart Riddle (University of Southern Queensland)

In this provocation we report on research investigating approaches to enacting curricular justice, which was undertaken with three secondary schools serving high-poverty communities in Queensland, Australia. The project involved the research team collaborating with teachers in each school to develop a knowledge+plus curriculum, which drew together ‘powerful knowledge’ and ‘funds of knowledge’ in ways that meaningfully connected with social and cultural backgrounds and knowledges of marginalised young people.

2. The ethics of knowledge in curriculum making | Joe Smith (University of Stirling)

This provocation looks at the importance of close attention to what we teach young people and how this knowledge is framed. It explores centrality of educational purpose in curriculum planning using the distinction between Traditional Social Realism and Radical Social Realism developed by Smith and Jackson (2021). Above all, it asks us to take seriously the question posed by students down the ages: ‘Sir/ Miss, why would anyone ever need to know that?’

3. Curriculum making in the digital age: Information flow, knowledge construction, and social justice | Qudsia Kalsoom (University of Dundee) & Helen Coker (University of Dundee)

Digital technologies have introduced new ways of accessing information and constructing knowledge, enabling information to flow globally and be accessed from almost anywhere. Yet, schools are situated in social structures which are often embedded with inequity and oppressive social relations. Our provocation asks you to reflect on, and problematise, the flow of digital knowledge into schools. In what ways does it frame and constrain equity and social justice in the education system and curricular practice in classrooms?

4. Becoming inclusive: Developing pre-service teachers' orientations towards their practice in Scotland | Andrea Priestley (University of Stirling), Stella Mouroutsou (University of Stirling) & Nuzhat Uthmani (University of Stirling)

This provocation presents findings, from a case study with a cohort of third-year undergraduate pre-service teachers in Scotland, regarding their ideas about inclusion and curricular justice, as they concurrently encountered practice and theory. To support PSTs to develop critically informed approaches to inclusive curriculum making, teacher educators need to further engage them in reflexive practices; productive pedagogical approaches and debates grounded in what Fraser called a distribution-difference dilemma.

5. Gender as an issue of curricular (in)justice: A review of national early childhood education curriculum documents in England from 1996 to 2021 | Rachel Lehner-Mear (University of Nottingham), Kerryn Dixon (University of Nottingham), Yuwei Xu (University of Nottingham), Catherine Gripton (University of Nottingham) & Lucy Cooker (University of Nottingham)

In this provocation we trace gender’s representation in 14 birth-to-five statutory and non-statutory curriculum documents from 1996 to 2021, identifying the extent to which these curricula might support practitioners to teach in just and equitable ways. Our review highlights how changes in the broader political system result in three shifts in gender’s curricular positioning that ultimately fail the needs of the least advantaged and inhibit children’s preparation for democratic participation in society.

6. What place for justice in school-based climate change and sustainability education? Perspectives from school teachers in England | Elizabeth Rushton (University of Stirling), Brian Johnston (University of Stirling) & Nicola Walshe (University College London)

This provocation presents findings from a recent online survey of teachers in England, which included responses from over 300 teachers to questions relating to their teaching of climate change and sustainability education (CCSE). Justice-oriented CCSE demands a fundamental shift in the leadership of school-based education in England at school and policy levels, so that the practices identified through this survey fully encompass ideas of climate justice.

If this event is full, please send an email to curric-stir@stir.ac.uk, so we can add you to the waiting list. We have made this event in-person, because we believe that the dialogue about these important issues will be richer. However, there will be limited online access available (to listen to the speakers). Please email us if you would like to be added to the list of online attendees.