In a faraway realm there lived a princess. She was almost old enough to take part in the annual Great Ordeal, which all young people from noble houses were required to enter. Expectations of this event were always raised when a child of royal blood was involved, and the turn of the princess was anticipated … Continue reading Wagging the Dog: A Tale
Order beneath the chaos One day I dried the dishes for my mum. I would have been 16 or 17 and, believe it or not, this wasn’t as rare an occurrence as you might think. The reason the occasion stands out in my memory is not because of my act of drying the dishes, but … Continue reading A Deeper Dive
I was extremely impressed when I read the transcript of the ResearchED Kent talk from Becky Allen and Ben White (2019). As I commented in response, I think it is a sign of a good piece when it has the reader nodding along in pious agreement at certain points and feeling challenged to the core … Continue reading Complicated Problems with a Curricular Solution
(Hargreaves, 1976) ResearchED Northampton was the first event of its kind that I have attended. I shouldn’t have left it so long, but I have always been much more inclined to immerse myself in books, articles and blogs than to attend conferences and encounter actual people. I need not have worried; the day was superb, … Continue reading From Fear to Hope
I have written about my attempts to lead a process of school curriculum reform (posts one, two, three, four), advising leaders to develop expertise, start carefully, work hard and expect the process to take a long time. This last post in my series addresses the issue of how the leader is to prioritise the curriculum … Continue reading The Strait and Narrow Way of Curriculum Leadership (5)
In my first post in this series I made use of a passage from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1961) to provide a metaphor for senior curriculum leadership as a narrow path between opposing perils. In this one I use another part of the allegory to illustrate my third piece of advice (the others can be … Continue reading The Strait and Narrow Way of Curriculum Leadership (4)
In my first post in this series I made use of a passage from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1961) to provide a metaphor for senior curriculum leadership as a narrow path between opposing perils. In this one I use another part of the allegory to illustrate my second piece of advice (the first can be … Continue reading The Strait and Narrow Way of Curriculum Leadership (3)
