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.