The curriculum as alchemy: School and the struggle for cultural space

Abstract

This article examines the impact of the introduction of the National Curriculum (England and Wales) and standardised assessment procedures on the culture and curriculum of a large culturally diverse secondary school in London during the period 1993-1995. It examines the processes through which centrally controlled definitions of knowledge and its assessment are imposed on teachers and learners through state control of curricula and assessment in a market led system of education. Drawing on material from interviews with teachers, it discusses the incursion of the state into the daily life and culture of a particular school. It uses the imagery of alchemy to question the hegemonic role of a national curriculum in crushing the expression of cultural difference and excluding other possible curricula which recognise and celebrate the knowledge and experience which pupils bring with them into school. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.