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Building a New National Curriculum for Wales: Practitioners as Curriculum Policy Makers

Tom Crick Orcid Logo, Ty Golding

33rd International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI 2020)

Swansea University Author: Tom Crick Orcid Logo

Abstract

Wales has followed the direction of England in curriculum policy in recent years, being subject to various iterations of the prescriptive National Curriculum, before political devolution to the National Assembly for Wales in 1999. Since 2015, Wales has been developing a new purpose-led, process-driv...

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Published in: 33rd International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI 2020)
Published: Marrakesh, Morocco 2020
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa53339
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fullrecord <?xml version="1.0"?><rfc1807><datestamp>2021-03-09T09:47:37.8726621</datestamp><bib-version>v2</bib-version><id>53339</id><entry>2020-01-23</entry><title>Building a New National Curriculum for Wales: Practitioners as Curriculum Policy Makers</title><swanseaauthors><author><sid>200c66ef0fc55391f736f6e926fb4b99</sid><ORCID>0000-0001-5196-9389</ORCID><firstname>Tom</firstname><surname>Crick</surname><name>Tom Crick</name><active>true</active><ethesisStudent>false</ethesisStudent></author></swanseaauthors><date>2020-01-23</date><deptcode>EDUC</deptcode><abstract>Wales has followed the direction of England in curriculum policy in recent years, being subject to various iterations of the prescriptive National Curriculum, before political devolution to the National Assembly for Wales in 1999. Since 2015, Wales has been developing a new purpose-led, process-driven curriculum (Donaldson, 2015), in line with international trends towards school autonomy in determining curricular content, child-centred pedagogy and a focus on so-called 21st century skills and competencies (OECD, 2017).The new Curriculum for Wales has been advanced through a co-construction process that has actively engaged practitioners in &#x201C;Pioneer&#x201D; school networks, across three phases over a four-year period, from the development of guiding principles to the specification of the six new Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLEs). This research examines the role of practitioners in this process from the viewpoint of embedded policy makers over this period; it primarily focuses on the outcomes of this involvement on practitioner agency and practice, their schools ability to improve under this new system of increased autonomy and subsidiarity, alongside the implications for the wider educational system across Wales.This paper is based around two complementary approaches to provide insight into and analysis of this development of emerging national curriculum policy in Wales, especially focusing on the role of practitioners in promoting educational change. Firstly, it is based upon the experiences of both authors and their direct involvement in the curriculum reform process in Wales over the previous four years: one as a primary school headteacher of eight years who has been seconded to the Welsh Government for the last two years as the Head of Curriculum Design and Development (Golding); the other as a STEM education research academic who has been chairing the development of the Science &amp; Technology AoLE since 2017, having previously chaired the development of a new national Digital Competence Framework in 2015 (Crick). Secondly, this work reflects upon several ongoing research and evaluation projects at the national, regional and school level, to provide external context to this experiential insight, primarily focusing on the Pioneer school model (WISERD, 2017; Arad Research, 2018; Wavehill, 2019) and the practitioners who have been directly involved in the process (Crick &amp; Priestley, 2019)This work casts light on the processes and conditions that can foster practitioner engagement with the formulation of national education policy, the potential weaknesses of such approaches, as well as the wider benefits for practitioners, schools and the system in Wales as a whole. In particular, our insight and evaluation suggests that this approach has long-term implications in the development of a cadre of expert practitioners able to support colleagues in the subsequent enactment of a new national curriculum, through the building of system capacity for curriculum making. Though this critical evaluation of an emerging national case study of education system reform in Wales, we also present a number of recommendations across policy and practice (including initial teacher education, professional learning and school leadership), to provide the foundation for potential replicability and portability to other jurisdictions.</abstract><type>Conference Paper/Proceeding/Abstract</type><journal>33rd International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI 2020)</journal><volume/><journalNumber/><paginationStart/><paginationEnd/><publisher/><placeOfPublication>Marrakesh, Morocco</placeOfPublication><isbnPrint/><isbnElectronic/><issnPrint/><issnElectronic/><keywords/><publishedDay>8</publishedDay><publishedMonth>1</publishedMonth><publishedYear>2020</publishedYear><publishedDate>2020-01-08</publishedDate><doi/><url/><notes/><college>COLLEGE NANME</college><department>Education</department><CollegeCode>COLLEGE CODE</CollegeCode><DepartmentCode>EDUC</DepartmentCode><institution>Swansea University</institution><apcterm/><lastEdited>2021-03-09T09:47:37.8726621</lastEdited><Created>2020-01-23T14:59:27.2259960</Created><path><level id="1">Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences</level><level id="2">School of Social Sciences - Education and Childhood Studies</level></path><authors><author><firstname>Tom</firstname><surname>Crick</surname><orcid>0000-0001-5196-9389</orcid><order>1</order></author><author><firstname>Ty</firstname><surname>Golding</surname><order>2</order></author></authors><documents><document><filename>53339__19450__30617e76bfd6482ca49901165a9b50e3.pdf</filename><originalFilename>ICSEI submitted.pdf</originalFilename><uploaded>2021-03-09T09:47:27.9949102</uploaded><type>Output</type><contentLength>96489</contentLength><contentType>application/pdf</contentType><version>Accepted Manuscript</version><cronfaStatus>true</cronfaStatus><copyrightCorrect>false</copyrightCorrect><language>eng</language></document></documents><OutputDurs/></rfc1807>
spelling 2021-03-09T09:47:37.8726621 v2 53339 2020-01-23 Building a New National Curriculum for Wales: Practitioners as Curriculum Policy Makers 200c66ef0fc55391f736f6e926fb4b99 0000-0001-5196-9389 Tom Crick Tom Crick true false 2020-01-23 EDUC Wales has followed the direction of England in curriculum policy in recent years, being subject to various iterations of the prescriptive National Curriculum, before political devolution to the National Assembly for Wales in 1999. Since 2015, Wales has been developing a new purpose-led, process-driven curriculum (Donaldson, 2015), in line with international trends towards school autonomy in determining curricular content, child-centred pedagogy and a focus on so-called 21st century skills and competencies (OECD, 2017).The new Curriculum for Wales has been advanced through a co-construction process that has actively engaged practitioners in “Pioneer” school networks, across three phases over a four-year period, from the development of guiding principles to the specification of the six new Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLEs). This research examines the role of practitioners in this process from the viewpoint of embedded policy makers over this period; it primarily focuses on the outcomes of this involvement on practitioner agency and practice, their schools ability to improve under this new system of increased autonomy and subsidiarity, alongside the implications for the wider educational system across Wales.This paper is based around two complementary approaches to provide insight into and analysis of this development of emerging national curriculum policy in Wales, especially focusing on the role of practitioners in promoting educational change. Firstly, it is based upon the experiences of both authors and their direct involvement in the curriculum reform process in Wales over the previous four years: one as a primary school headteacher of eight years who has been seconded to the Welsh Government for the last two years as the Head of Curriculum Design and Development (Golding); the other as a STEM education research academic who has been chairing the development of the Science & Technology AoLE since 2017, having previously chaired the development of a new national Digital Competence Framework in 2015 (Crick). Secondly, this work reflects upon several ongoing research and evaluation projects at the national, regional and school level, to provide external context to this experiential insight, primarily focusing on the Pioneer school model (WISERD, 2017; Arad Research, 2018; Wavehill, 2019) and the practitioners who have been directly involved in the process (Crick & Priestley, 2019)This work casts light on the processes and conditions that can foster practitioner engagement with the formulation of national education policy, the potential weaknesses of such approaches, as well as the wider benefits for practitioners, schools and the system in Wales as a whole. In particular, our insight and evaluation suggests that this approach has long-term implications in the development of a cadre of expert practitioners able to support colleagues in the subsequent enactment of a new national curriculum, through the building of system capacity for curriculum making. Though this critical evaluation of an emerging national case study of education system reform in Wales, we also present a number of recommendations across policy and practice (including initial teacher education, professional learning and school leadership), to provide the foundation for potential replicability and portability to other jurisdictions. Conference Paper/Proceeding/Abstract 33rd International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI 2020) Marrakesh, Morocco 8 1 2020 2020-01-08 COLLEGE NANME Education COLLEGE CODE EDUC Swansea University 2021-03-09T09:47:37.8726621 2020-01-23T14:59:27.2259960 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Education and Childhood Studies Tom Crick 0000-0001-5196-9389 1 Ty Golding 2 53339__19450__30617e76bfd6482ca49901165a9b50e3.pdf ICSEI submitted.pdf 2021-03-09T09:47:27.9949102 Output 96489 application/pdf Accepted Manuscript true false eng
title Building a New National Curriculum for Wales: Practitioners as Curriculum Policy Makers
spellingShingle Building a New National Curriculum for Wales: Practitioners as Curriculum Policy Makers
Tom Crick
title_short Building a New National Curriculum for Wales: Practitioners as Curriculum Policy Makers
title_full Building a New National Curriculum for Wales: Practitioners as Curriculum Policy Makers
title_fullStr Building a New National Curriculum for Wales: Practitioners as Curriculum Policy Makers
title_full_unstemmed Building a New National Curriculum for Wales: Practitioners as Curriculum Policy Makers
title_sort Building a New National Curriculum for Wales: Practitioners as Curriculum Policy Makers
author_id_str_mv 200c66ef0fc55391f736f6e926fb4b99
author_id_fullname_str_mv 200c66ef0fc55391f736f6e926fb4b99_***_Tom Crick
author Tom Crick
author2 Tom Crick
Ty Golding
format Conference Paper/Proceeding/Abstract
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description Wales has followed the direction of England in curriculum policy in recent years, being subject to various iterations of the prescriptive National Curriculum, before political devolution to the National Assembly for Wales in 1999. Since 2015, Wales has been developing a new purpose-led, process-driven curriculum (Donaldson, 2015), in line with international trends towards school autonomy in determining curricular content, child-centred pedagogy and a focus on so-called 21st century skills and competencies (OECD, 2017).The new Curriculum for Wales has been advanced through a co-construction process that has actively engaged practitioners in “Pioneer” school networks, across three phases over a four-year period, from the development of guiding principles to the specification of the six new Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLEs). This research examines the role of practitioners in this process from the viewpoint of embedded policy makers over this period; it primarily focuses on the outcomes of this involvement on practitioner agency and practice, their schools ability to improve under this new system of increased autonomy and subsidiarity, alongside the implications for the wider educational system across Wales.This paper is based around two complementary approaches to provide insight into and analysis of this development of emerging national curriculum policy in Wales, especially focusing on the role of practitioners in promoting educational change. Firstly, it is based upon the experiences of both authors and their direct involvement in the curriculum reform process in Wales over the previous four years: one as a primary school headteacher of eight years who has been seconded to the Welsh Government for the last two years as the Head of Curriculum Design and Development (Golding); the other as a STEM education research academic who has been chairing the development of the Science & Technology AoLE since 2017, having previously chaired the development of a new national Digital Competence Framework in 2015 (Crick). Secondly, this work reflects upon several ongoing research and evaluation projects at the national, regional and school level, to provide external context to this experiential insight, primarily focusing on the Pioneer school model (WISERD, 2017; Arad Research, 2018; Wavehill, 2019) and the practitioners who have been directly involved in the process (Crick & Priestley, 2019)This work casts light on the processes and conditions that can foster practitioner engagement with the formulation of national education policy, the potential weaknesses of such approaches, as well as the wider benefits for practitioners, schools and the system in Wales as a whole. In particular, our insight and evaluation suggests that this approach has long-term implications in the development of a cadre of expert practitioners able to support colleagues in the subsequent enactment of a new national curriculum, through the building of system capacity for curriculum making. Though this critical evaluation of an emerging national case study of education system reform in Wales, we also present a number of recommendations across policy and practice (including initial teacher education, professional learning and school leadership), to provide the foundation for potential replicability and portability to other jurisdictions.
published_date 2020-01-08T04:06:14Z
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