“Are you on slide 8 yet?”: The impact of standardised curricula on teacher professionalism

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Traianou, Anna; Stevenson, Howard; Pearce, Sarah and Brady, Jude. 2025. “Are you on slide 8 yet?”: The impact of standardised curricula on teacher professionalism. Project Report. National Education Union (NEU), London. [Report]

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NEU3679 Are you on slide 8 yet_ Full Report (Digital) +QR.pdf - Published Version
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Official URL: https://neu.org.uk/latest/library/are-you-slide-8-...

Abstract or Description

In this report we seek to develop a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of teachers’ experience and use of standardised curricula. By standardised curricula we mean units/schemes of work, programmes or packages that are ready for teachers to follow in teaching. This includes a wide range of practices including materials self-generated in-house (in an individual school or across a group of schools) and content that is provided by external third parties (such as educational publishers). In some cases, materials are used by teachers in a loose and flexible manner, while in other contexts teachers are expected to adhere very closely to the standardised curriculum design. In the international literature the latter are sometimes referred to as ‘scripted curricula’.

Our aims in this study are to:

establish the extent of the use of standardised curricula across primary and secondary schools;

understand the ways in which teachers experience and evaluate standardised curricula;

understand the relationship between the use of standardised curricula and the quality of teachers’ working lives and in particular their perceptions of autonomy, self-efficacy and workload;

gain, within this broader framework, an understanding of teachers’ responses to the Oak National Academy. Oak National Academy provides a particular kind of standardised curriculum that has been developed with government support and significant public funding and so there is a public interest argument for focusing on this case.

The data is based on a survey completed by 1655 teachers, interviews with 40 teachers (conducted individually and in focus groups), and a documentary analysis of both policy papers and Oak curriculum resources.

Item Type:

Report (Project Report)

Keywords:

teacher professionalism, standardised curricula, autonomy

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