Children’s Agency in the National Curriculum

The project aims to:

• critically analyse how children's agency is represented in national curriculum texts including assessment and inspection requirements
• investigate how the implementation of the national curriculum in schools influences the way children perceive and exercise agency in the classroom
• examine the role teachers play in mediating the impact of curriculum on children's agency
• make an original contribution to knowledge about national curricula, theories of agency and education.

The research uses a qualitative research design with two main methods:

1. a critical discourse analysis of national curriculum and other policy texts relevant to curriculum enactment in schools
2. in-depth exploration of children's agency through ethnographies of three contrasting primary schools.

Texts will be selected for analysis based on their possible influence on children’s agency, for example: 

• the 2014 national curriculum text
• requirements for statutory assessment processes
• texts representing adjustments to policy relevant to the curriculum including during the Covid-19 pandemic
• significant documents published by the inspectorate Ofsted.

The sample of schools for the ethnographies includes a state school, an academy school, and an independent school, to ensure access to a wide range of possible school-level factors that could influence children’s agency.

In addition to creating whole school ethnographies over two years of data collection, the focus of the research will include perspectives from a small number of case- study children.

The ethnographies will also enable comparison of the subject areas of English/language, science and arts to evaluate the differences in children’s agency linked to different curriculum subjects and areas.

• Dominic Wyse, Principal Investigator
• Yana Manyukhina, Co-Investigator