ABSTRACT
Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) is a good example of a new breed of national curriculum; a curricular model that seeks to combine top-down government prescription with bottom-up school-based curriculum development by teaching professionals.
However, in developing a renewed view of teachers as agents of change and relaxing curriculum prescription, CfE has attracted criticism for its vagueness in terms of content and for a mix-and-match approach and seemingly atheoretical design.
This paper engages in a critique of CfE, and proposes a process by which practitioners may make sense of and enact the new curriculum.
‘Curriculum for Excellence is designed to transform education in Scotland, leading to better outcomes for all children and young people.’ (Scottish Government, 2009: 4)
‘Innovation after innovation has been introduced into school after school, but the overwhelming number of them disappear without a fingerprint.’ (Cuban, 1988: 86)
Contributed by F. Culbert
