Evans, Jane; (2007) Globalisation in the geography and citizenship curricula for England :an investigation into the nature of the political in a centrally prescribed curriculum. Doctoral thesis , Institute of Education, University of London.

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Abstract

This thesis focuses on globalisation in the Key Stage 3 National Curriculum for Citizenship and Geography in England. The research is based on two premises: firstly, that there are numerous perspectives on globalisation and secondly, that globalisation is a politically tendentious topic. The research is conducted in two parts. First, the content of the curriculum is investigated to ask if any perspectives on globalisation are privileged, marginalised or silenced in the curriculum. Second, the research asks why a politically loaded subject like globalisation is now included in a curriculum which consciously seeks to avoid indoctrination. Empirical research finds that, while globalisation is welcomed as a controversial issue for its value in encouraging critical thinking and the development of liberal values and attitudes in education for democracy, the range of authentically controversial global issues raised through the curriculum is limited. Globalisation has come to be associated in the curriculum with international development. The research investigates the prevalence of this perspective and concludes that development education's distanced controversies are 'safe', compared with other global controversies that may imply a direct critique of governance. Conceptual research indicates that globalisation is included in the curriculum, not just as content, but is promoted through curriculum policy. An analysis informed by critical theory proposes that globalisation has come to be included in the curriculum as part of the Third Way political project. Globalisation is central to this project and its inclusion in the curriculum is part of the process of gaining consent for globalisation as a taken-for-granted concept in the context of globalising policies. The thesis explores the apparent contradiction that although fear of direct indoctrination through the curriculum leads to an anodyne account of globalisation, curriculum policy is nonetheless being used to legitimate a Third Way version of neo-liberal economic globalisation, and concludes that the curriculum provides evidence of wider hegemonic processes.

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