Qualifying social work education is recognised as playing a critical role in equipping practitioners with the skills and interest to develop a 'research minded' approach to practice, yet in the UK context, the profession continues to grapple with questions about how to support practitioners to sustain and develop these skills post-qualification.…

Education policy in England's schools is driven by the 'what works' agenda, characterised by interventions claiming to be scientifically objective and evidence-led. In this article I show how what works interventions reproduce anti-Black linguistic racism because to be perceived as someone who is 'working', racialised children must assimilate…

In England and Scotland, the History National Curriculum avoids the prescription of specific content; expecting schools instead to devise a curriculum appropriate to their pupils within broad guidance. This means in both countries, teachers apparently have responsibility for constructing a curriculum: selecting content, sequencing learning and…

This article explores an insight into Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender, Queer+ (LGBTQ+) inclusion within two primary school Year 1 classrooms in England. It was a pilot that aimed to teach children about inclusion. It showed positive results that warrant further investigation. Individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ have a right to feel safe within…

Sex and relationships education has been a controversial area of the curriculum in England for many years. Despite changes to the content and the approach to this material, many teachers and parents remained unhappy about issues such as: the right of schools to teach material that some think should be done in a family situation only; the problem…

Having been given some additional curriculum time, Kerry Apps and her department made decisions about what had been missing in the previous curriculum diet. Building on an existing enquiry (already published in "Teaching History 176"), Apps decided to focus on how and when the idea of race in its modern sense developed in early modern…

This paper considers the languages on offer in secondary schools in England and the possibility of enacting curriculum change with a view to reducing the dominance of French, Spanish and, to a lesser extent, German as a possible way to increase take-up of modern foreign languages post-14. Questionnaires were completed by 666 students aged 14-15,…

Ever since the 1970s, politicised debates have raged over the teaching of history, dubbed the 'history wars'. These debates continue to impact primary and secondary teachers' choices of history curriculum foci to this day. This research aimed to discover history teachers' understanding of how to develop diversity within their history curricula and…

Drawing on data provided by 5,811 students from schools in England, Wales, and London who self-identified as either 'no religion' or as Christian, this study explored the effect of the contact hypothesis (having friends who are Muslims) on scores recorded on the seven-item Scale of Anti-Muslim Attitude (SAMA), after controlling for type of school…

This article describes the development of a questionnaire to discover primary school students' perceptions of science, religion and the relationships between them on a range of topics that are known as Big Questions. The questionnaire was administered in 16 primary schools in England with over 750 students aged 10-11. The findings indicate that…

This article explores how the presence of competing logics in craft higher education (HE) influences educational provision and student experience. Findings are presented from four craft HE case studies across England, including analysis of degree programme specifications and module curricula and interviews with educators, current students and…

An online module for final-year master's students has been developed over a 5-year period. The module allows equitable experiences for students studying in person at the University of York, at a university abroad, or undertaking an industrial placement. Distinctively, the module was designed around the use of modern research papers, published by…

The COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged during 2020, had a wide-ranging impact on all forms of social engagement in England until February 2022, when all COVID restrictions were lifted. Schools were widely affected during this time in both tangible and tacet interactions. The impact of COVID restrictions on curricula for 11-14-year-olds in the Key…

GeoCapabilities is a distinctive approach to teacher professional development which foregrounds the educational potential of geographical knowledge. This paper examines the effect of GeoCapabilities on geography teachers' expertise. First, the paper explores a problem of teacher training which privileges technique for classroom effectiveness over…

Amid the rising calls for a 'decolonised curriculum', scholars and activists have outlined what needs to be done to 'decolonise the university'. Yet in practice, those involved in decolonising work often face considerable backlash and institutional resistance. Drawing on empirical research with students and staff across nine universities in…