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The culture of disciplines : reconceptualising multi‐subject curricula
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Davies, Richard and Trowsdale, Jo (2021) The culture of disciplines : reconceptualising multi‐subject curricula. British Educational Research Journal, 47 (5). pp. 1434-1446. doi:10.1002/berj.3735 ISSN 1469-3518.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3735
Abstract
The arts are recognised for their potential to humanise and enrich educational experience, but hold a lowly position in the hierarchy of school subject-based curricula. This limits the time, and thus the influence, they can have. Whilst schools welcome the idea of a curriculum rich with both arts and science subjects, resistance to realising this is often advanced in terms of the proportion of curriculum time required for different subjects. Arguments for STEAM education, whilst apparently challenging this and valuing the potential of the arts, have reinforced its servant role. Drawing on research into a particular project, where the perspectives of the arts and sciences inform and enrich how the other is experienced and understood, we reframe this problem. Firstly, drawing on Massey’s conception of space-time, we argue that one can conceive of more than one subject occupying the same curricular space on a school timetable. Secondly, informed by Geertz, we consider what the culture of the arts and the sciences offers, suggesting that this appears to reflect what teachers have valued. We argue that foregrounding the culture of school subjects, and particularly the culture of the arts, as part of a multicultural frame can facilitate rich and engaging educational experiences. Rather than being positioned as competing for time or status in the curriculum, a focus on culture emphasises how the co-existence and interplay of multiple subjects broadens, develops and thus enriches children’s educational experience. It also enables a different conception of, and thus role for, the arts in schooling.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | L Education > LB Theory and practice of education | ||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology | ||||||||
SWORD Depositor: | Library Publications Router | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Curriculum planning, Education -- Curricula -- Philosophy, Culture, Teachers -- In-service training, Education -- Curricula -- Great Britain | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | British Educational Research Journal | ||||||||
Publisher: | Wiley | ||||||||
ISSN: | 1469-3518 | ||||||||
Official Date: | October 2021 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 47 | ||||||||
Number: | 5 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 1434-1446 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1002/berj.3735 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 30 May 2022 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 31 May 2022 |
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