With the curriculum and assessment review carried out in 2024-2025 by the recently elected Labour Government in the UK, the spotlight has returned once again to discussions around the sort of curriculum we want to see in our schools.
In a recent article in TeachingTimes, ‘Bringing 'Powerful Knowledge' Back To The Curriculum’, Professor David Lambert (2024) encouraged us to think broadly and ambitiously about this task, promoting a ‘Future 3’ (F3) curriculum vision in schools, led by ‘powerful’ knowledge. This type of thinking draws from the work of Michael Young and Johan Muller (2010). It is a response to the more traditional fact-driven ‘Future 1’ (F1) model of curriculum and the more progressive competence-driven ‘Future 2’ (F2) curriculum. As Lambert (2024) explains:
'Future 3 (F3) restores the responsibilities of teachers to ensure pupils have access to knowledge ... But unlike F1, knowledge is contested, dynamic and subject to argument. Students are encouraged to discern the reliability or dependability of knowledge claims. This is a curriculum of engagement with knowledge itself ... F3 recognises the virtuous educational intent that can be present in both the ‘traditional’ F1 and the ‘progressive’ F2 scenarios'
David Lambert (2024)
F3 recognises the importance of individual subjects driving the curriculum – not in a way that results simply in a set of exam grades, but one in which the subject knowledge itself is meaningful and empowering.
I seek to respond to Lambert’s challenge by looking at what a powerful, knowledge-led F3 curriculum might look like in practice. In doing so, I will draw upon research carried out with over 200 teachers across three schools, which I have published in ‘What are we Teaching? Powerful knowledge and a capabilities curriculum’ (Bustin 2024).