Economics in the School Curriculum: A Breakdown of Consensus

Summary

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Subjects gather around themselves communities of people who compete and collaborate with one another, who define and defend their boundaries and who demand allegiance from their members. Jephcote explores the ways in which those in the economics subject community acted in relation to the development of A-level and to attempts to widen economics as part of an entitlement curriculum for all.

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Economics in the School Curriculum: A Breakdown of Consensus

INTRODUCTION

Subjects gather around themselves communities of people who compete and collaborate with one another, who define and defend their boundaries and who demand allegiance from their members, A subject acts as a 'flag' of allegiance so that the differences and tensions within a subject community can actually work to hold it together. However, when pressure for change begins to mount, either from within or from outside the subject community (especially from central government and its agencies), this gives rise to multiple identities, values and interests and to the formation of coalitions.

In this process of transformation, subject communities are not all-powerful in engineering change (Goodson, 1994) but their contribution is largely neglected. This article explores the ways in which those in the economics subject community acted in relation to the development of A-level and to attempts to widen economics as part of an entitlement curriculum for all.

A-LEVEL ECONOMICS: WARNING SIGNS AND PRESSURES FOR CHANGE

Livesey (1986), a Professor of Economics and a Chief Examiner for A-level, was concerned more generally about the changing status of economics and the implications for A-level. It was his view that the domina...

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