An exploration of British values and the school curriculum: making space for counter-knowledge

The current scope of knowledge and technically oriented nature of the curriculum undermines diversity, critical inquiry and perpetuates structural inequality. This thesis strives to understand the relationships of power that manifest through students' experiences and interpretations of British values and the school curriculum. It is necessary to examine the deeper narratives and values embedded in curricula practice and what is traditionally valorised as ‘academic’ knowledge in policy and practice. I am guided by an analytical dialogue between Critical Race Theory and Critical Pedagogy, and draw on in-depth case studies from a Year 4 and Year 8 class and their teachers in a primary and secondary school in Northern England. I worked with teachers to re-design part of the curriculum and used the principles of ‘Funds of Knowledge’ (FoK) to incorporate students' social knowledge and histories, as one approach to challenging the movement towards a ‘traditional’ academic curriculum. My analysis uses British values as a prism to reflect on contemporary citizenship, identity and belonging in a context of neo- assimilationist rhetoric and structural racism in Britain. I present three dominant narratives embedded in students' understanding of British values, history and national identity, which are reinforced by knowledge in the curriculum. These are; a performative celebration of progress, a perceived cultural clash with Islam, and the perpetuation of whiteness. I emphasise the shortcomings of such hegemonic narratives, how they permeate the curriculum, and argue why counter-knowledge is necessary to help deconstruct and create alternative meanings. I stress the need to reflect on the ethical purpose of the curriculum beyond neoliberal outcomes and argue against the false dualism between academic (‘powerful’) knowledge and social (‘everyday’) knowledge. I conclude that small sites of resistance do exist within the formal curriculum system, that could foster more equitable and transformative ways of being, relating and knowing.