Walter Humes

The development of Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence: amnesia and déjà vu

Scotland’s new Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) has been widely acknowledged as the most significant educational development in a generation, with the potential to transform learning and teaching in Scottish schools. In common with recent developments elsewhere, CfE seeks to re‐engage teachers with processes of curriculum development, to place learning at the heart of the curriculum and to change engrained practices of schooling. This article draws upon well‐established curriculum theory (notably the work of both Lawrence Stenhouse and A.V. Kelly) to analyse the new curriculum. We argue that by neglecting to take account of such theory, the curricular offering proposed by CfE is subject to a number of significant structural contradictions which may affect the impact that it ultimately exerts on learning and teaching; in effect, by ignoring the lessons of the past, CfE runs the risk of undermining the potential for real change.

Post-structuralism and policy research in education

This paper critically examines some of the challenges to policy research in education posed by post-modernist and post-structuralist thinking. It starts by characterizing those modernist and structuralist assumptions which have been subject to attack, but suggests that they are still very much in the ascendancy in the official discourse of educational research (as expressed, for example, by the National Educational Research Forum). Thereafter, key features of the assault represented by the work of Foucault, Derrida and Lyotard are outlined and an account of their destabilizing effect on intellectual work, for individuals and institutions, is offered. Several possible responses are considered. It is argued that policy research poses particular problems because, notwithstanding the messiness of the policy process, there must always come a point of closure on options: decisions cannot be delayed until the epistemological status of educational research is resolved. Researchers must find ways of negotiating the shifting configurations in the relationship between research, policy and practice. This will require both theoretical sophistication and robust engagement with issues that matter to practitioners.

Editorial: The reception of post-structuralism in educational research and policy

The reception of post-structuralism in the English-speaking world has been both varied and uneven. ‘Post-structuralism’, as an Americanism that tends to obscure the often deep-seated differences and styles of thinkers grouped together under this term, was initially more readily received in departments of literature than in departments of philosophy. Indeed, where the latter were especially hostile, the former were hospitable. Much of the post-structuralist canon dealt with the act of literature and developed forms of criticism that were not easily contained within disciplinary boundaries. Analytic philosophers have found the question of style difficult to deal with; they were unhappy with the new methods ^ deconstruction, semanalysis, genealogy ^ questioning whether they were sufficiently ‘philosophical’ and rigorous. Yet, as the philosophers quarrelled and engaged in demarcation disputes, the work of first generation post-structuralist thinkers became more absorbed into the fabric of the humanities and social sciences. While post-structuralist thought was seized upon in the emerging fields of cultural studies and film studies, it was also opposed by traditional and neo-marxists, especially in the early days by self-styled critical theorists. The question of the reception of post-structuralism needs to be written for specific countries, locations and disciplines for the American and British experience differs considerably, as it does for other countries. Gordon (1996: 253), for instance, remarks that ‘The British reception of Foucault’s work has been difficult and uncertain’ and yet he goes on to observe the way in which ‘Foucault drew attention to an element of critical thought in the Scots creators of political economy’ (p. 255) and attached particular importance to Fergusson’s idea of civil society. Gordon also begins to flesh out an account of the differences between Foucault and the British historians, especially those who saw Marxism as the science of history. As he says, the intellectual signature of the British Left is the way in which social history replaces historical sociology as the vehicle for Gramscian ‘organic’ intellectuals to live their lives as part of the existential task of recreating democratic elements of a common culture. Perhaps, today, we are now more sensitive to the valences of cultural context and less likely to parade ideological commitments as ‘truths’. The bitter antagonisms on the Left which characterized the 1980s seem to have given way to a greater theoretical sophistication and creativity; perhaps even a preparedness to entertain what might have seemed like heresy only a mere decade ago. This antagonism was evident, for example, in the endless arguments over State Theory. On the one hand, Foucault, as Gordon (1996: 263) acknowledges, ‘was inclined to make fun of what he called a tendency . . . toward ‘‘State-phobia’’ ’ and, on the other, he offended the moralists

Research cultures in English and Scottish university education departments: An exploratory study of academic staff perceptions

The paper reports the findings of a small-scale qualitative investigation into academic staff perceptions of research cultures across 10 English and Scottish university education departments. The study sheds light on four interrelated issues: the nature of research cultures, perceived facilitators, perceived constraints and the emotional landscape of working within a research environment. The findings indicate that perceptions vary according to staff academic and scientific capital, largely determined by career background and the type of university institution in which they work. While there is evidence of a culture of performativity and intensification, there is also evidence of widespread commitment to (and enjoyment of) educational research, especially where its value is broadly conceived to include outputs of applied research (including action research) as well as basic and strategic research. It is concluded that a broader policy conception of what constitutes value in research, coupled with a deeper...