Michael Fordham

Less generic analysis and more case studies: teaching about sources in schools

23 December 2016 // 1 Comment

I have written in this blog on a few occasions how I think source-based questions in schools need to change. Although we have come a long way from the horrors of 1990s [...]

Furnishing the abstract with the specific: teaching disciplinary practice

20 December 2016 // 6 Comments

Curriculum theory is hard, for it asks us to take something very complex (such as an academic discipline) and to define it, give it structure and tease out its properties. [...]

To describe, to explain, to justify: a satirical farce

19 December 2016 // 2 Comments

PLEASE NOTE: the events set out below are fictional. Any similarity to a discussion at a meeting of GCSE examiners is purely coincidental. Teacher 1: Now are we all clear [...]

Vague verbs: a curricular problem

18 December 2016 // 6 Comments

This is slightly complex post on an issue on which I have not fully reached my own conclusions. I do however think that it outlines a deep problem in curriculum theory, and [...]

Against genericism: a response to Steve Turnbull

14 December 2016 // 2 Comments

This post needs to be read after reading Steve Turnbull’s critique of this blogpost. It is addressed directly to Steve. ______________ I should like to begin by [...]

Can children learn to challenge authority?

13 December 2016 // 1 Comment

Genericism is rife in the educational world and it takes many forms. One of its basic tenets is that the generic things we learn can easily be transferred from one domain to [...]

Do you respect your pupils?

12 December 2016 // 6 Comments

I had a brief Twitter exchange yesterday in which I tried to explain that traditionally-minded teachers are not child-hating sadists who see children as ‘sub-human’. In [...]

Sailing on a rising tide of knowledge

11 December 2016 // 10 Comments

Imagine for a moment a cannon positioned on the south coast of England, pointing at France. The artillery officers identify a target on the French coast and calculate exactly [...]

Speaking truth to power

6 December 2016 // 3 Comments

I awoke this morning to see that Cambridge Professor Mary Beard had been in an argument on Twitter with UKIP donor Arron Banks. Banks had claimed that immigration into [...]

Are there things that all children need to know?

27 November 2016 // 5 Comments

In mathematics and (to an extent) in the natural sciences there is not a huge amount of debate as to what ought to populate a curriculum. The greater debate, particularly in [...]

Against the generic use of sources in history lessons

25 November 2016 // 4 Comments

I have written before about some of the difficulties involved in getting pupils to act as ‘mini-historians’. Historians go into archives to work with sources forearmed [...]

On mountains and great conversations: the importance of knowing a little about a lot

23 November 2016 // 2 Comments

As some readers of this blog might know, I am a keen hillwalker and mountaineer and I spend many happy days each year wandering over the Lake District fells, bagging Scottish [...]

The long road to critical reading: against the ‘quick-fix’

22 November 2016 // 5 Comments

‘Fake news’ sites are very much in the public eye at the moment, but commentators for many years have noted that school pupils often struggle to be critical about what [...]

The knowledge party in my head

21 November 2016 // 4 Comments

When I was in Year 7, my maths teacher got us to calculate the number of possible unique handshakes in a group of people. We learnt that the number of handshakes in a group [...]

What makes a curriculum ‘knowledge-rich’?

19 November 2016 // 9 Comments

The terms ‘knowledge-based curriculum’ and ‘knowledge-rich curriculum’ have become increasingly popular, particularly amongst educational [...]

Genericism and the crisis of curriculum

18 June 2016 // 6 Comments

What follows below is a talk I gave to the British Curriculum Forum event on Saturday 18th June 2016. Generally the talk was well-received, even amongst those who disagreed [...]

Pupil-led enquiry: the reading problem

23 April 2016 // 7 Comments

It is widely known (and I think accepted?) that a person’s ability to comprehend something they read is closely tied to their prior knowledge of that subject. This creates [...]

Articles by Michael Fordham