Leading Curriculum Development

Greany, Toby

Abstract

The importance of leadership in shaping and developing the curriculum in schools is widely recognized. However, despite this recognition of the need for school leaders to be, inter alia, curriculum leaders, there is surprisingly little robust research into how leaders fulfil this role. Indeed, some argue that recent leadership research has encouraged school leaders to focus on how (effectively) teachers teach, and how (effectively) students learn, but not – or, at least, not sufficiently - on the question of what students should rightly learn in today’s world and how any such curriculum should be conceived, enacted and evaluated.

This chapter aims to:
• Review contemporary debates on the purpose and nature of the school curriculum
• Outline the context of curriculum reform in England, including the recent shift towards a ‘knowledge-based’ curriculum
• Analyse how schools and school groups in England approach curriculum development, identifying three types of response (Pragmatists, Gamers and Missionaries)
• Discuss the implications for leaders and leadership.

Citation

Greany, T. (2021). Leading Curriculum Development. In T. Greany, & P. Earley (Eds.), School Leadership and Education System Reform. (2nd). London: Bloomsbury Publishing

• Acceptance Date: Nov 30, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Aug 26, 2021
• Publication Date: Sep 23, 2021
• Deposit Date: Jan 5, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 27, 2022
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
• Edition: 2nd
• Book Title: School Leadership and Education System Reform
• Chapter Number: 8
• ISBN: 9781350173521
• Keywords: School leadership; curriculum leadership; knowledge-based curriculum
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5200651
• Related Public URLs: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/school-leadership-and-education-system-reform-9781350173521/