Making a Difference in the Curriculum
This page explains how being a Christian influences the way we teach the curriculum by exploring:
Why is Thinking as a Christian about the Curriculum Important?
What Story is Being Told by the Way I Teach?
Shouldn't we be Teaching Shared Values?
Further Information
Click on the link and it will lead you to the relevant section.
Why is Thinking as a Christian about the Curriculum Important?
Christians have had a lot to say about being a Christian in school, but this usually focuses on the behaviour of the Christian teacher and the quality of relationships that are built with pupils and colleagues. This is of course extremely important but a story may help to highlight a hidden danger here.
On the 21st February 2006, the BBC Radio 4 programme In Business carried a report on the Dutch bank ABN-AMRO. Apparently the bank had undertaken a major review of its sustainability policy, particularly in relation to the mining industry, in order to ensure that it was an environmentally and socially responsible organisation. Subsequently the Head of Risk Management at the bank discovered that money had been lent to a very dubious project that flouted all the espoused environmental and social principles. The problem was that the bank had reviewed all its peripheral activities to ensure that they conformed to its policies but had failed to review its core activity, namely lending money.
This story raises some significant questions for Christian teachers. A particularly important one is 'what is the core activity of a school?' Surely it is pupils' learning. If that is the case, another question for Christian teachers is 'to what degree is pupil learning in our classrooms distinctively Christian?' Or, to put it another way, 'how have I been a fifth act Christian when it comes to teaching the curriculum?' It is easy to put energy into activities like Christian groups, which, although important are peripheral to the main function of schools, and to ignore the curriculum, the focus of the core activity of learning.
What Story is Being Told by the Way I Teach?
One of the assumptions made by many teachers is that the curriculum is neutral; in other words that religious faith will make no difference to what is taught in maths or modern foreign languages for example.
However to think this is to miss an important point, namely that the curriculum is always 'telling a story', by which is meant that it is conveying implicit, but important, messages that may not be in tune with the Christian view of the world. Another case study will illustrate the point.
David Smith is a Christian modern languages teacher. In the early years of his career he felt dissatisfied with the way languages were taught, but wasn't sure why. Then it dawned on him that he was unhappy with the fact that the textbooks seemed to teach "tourist French". Careful examination of the exercises used showed that most were about "getting what you wanted as a tourist out of foreigners". The story that pupils were learning was that the purpose of learning a language is to get what you want from other people. He felt this wasn't a particularly Christian view. He decided to revise the curriculum so that the story it told was that we learn a foreign language in order to be better equipped to offer hospitality to the stranger. This reflects a key biblical theme. The vocabulary and grammar he taught didn't change a lot, but the resources he used did. Now he gave emphasis to understanding the way of life of French people.
David Smith's approach illustrates what it means to offer a distinctively Christian approach to the curriculum, by transforming the story being told by the subject so that it is earthed in Christian principles. David is modelling what it means to be a fifth act Christian.
Shouldn't we be Teaching Shared Values?
Some people dislike this distinctive approach as they think it is divisive. Rather they think that the curriculum should steer clear of religion, except in religious education, and only teach values that all people share, i.e. supposedly neutral values. To put it another way, they think the implicit story being told is neutral. There are a number of responses to this:
- Everyone's values are earthed in particular beliefs about the world. If we don't make this explicit, implicit beliefs will be passed on. For example teachers assumed that the standard approach to languages was neutral, but what it was in fact doing was implicitly reinforcing a materialist and somewhat selfish view of life.
- Certainly there are shared values (e.g. human life should be treated with the highest respect), but these occur because people's beliefs overlap, not because there are neutral values.
- It is important that schools help pupils to understand the important role beliefs play in underpinning values. David Smith's approach was helping pupils to be more aware of the beliefs that underpinned their learning.
- This approach is inclusive as it offers everyone the opportunity to reflect on the story being told by society. It encourages them to be aware of how we are all shaped by the implicit messages that abound in life.
- The Christian can offer something that is better for everyone by transforming the understanding of the story being told. It is therefore an inclusive approach.
Further Information
If you would like to find out more about transforming the curriculum from a distinctively Christian perspective, try:
- The Kuyers Institute a centre for Christian learning where David Smith is now the Director.
- The Charis Project which is the main Christian project that sought to develop materials that were both distinctive and inclusive for teaching various subjects in the curriculum.
- The Church of England offers a range of support in the curriculum.
- Reviewing the work that has been done at St Mary Redcliffe School in Bristol.
- Reading the lecture given by Trevor Cooling.
- Going to the Learning Centre established by the Becal project.
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To what degree is pupil learning in our classrooms distinctively Christian?
The curriculum is always 'telling a story'
Offer a distinctively Christian approach to the curriculum, by transforming the story being told by the subject