Making the most of the Curriculum Review: some reflections on supporting and sustaining change in schools

The 2004 review of Scotland’s school curriculum offers the potential for radical change in the education of young people, placing a greater emphasis than at present on learners and learning. If realised, it presents greater scope for innovative teaching, flexibility in provision, less overcrowding and a potential challenge to the entrenched subject paradigm in secondary education. This paper does not offer a critique of or even a detailed commentary on the Curriculum Review, the principles of which I broadly support. Instead it is concerned with the issue of sustainability. Despite the good intentions inherent in the review, fundamental curriculum change in Scotland may be no more than a chimera, blocked by the structural conservatism of the schooling system. The paper draws together some of the recent theoretical and empirical literature on curriculum change, examining some of the issues that may impact on this latest attempt to reform the curriculum and suggesting a model for change that may facilitate long lasting and deeply rooted change