This opinion piece advocates the benefits of incorporating Outdoor Education (OE) into primary education practice across the curriculum by evaluating OE policies and practices in Denmark and England. Using a literature-based auto-ethnographic informed approach we look at the benefits gained through participating in outdoor primary education in Danish folkskoler (weekly schools) which practise udeskoler (outdoor […]
This paper focuses on qualitative findings from a study that investigated primary teachers’ perspectives on the standards agenda in England. Q-methodology was used to investigate the complexity of their perspectives. The study’s Q-methodology findings are published in Education 3-13 (Williams-Brown and Jopling, 2021). This paper focuses on qualitative responses from this study that were completed […]
Creativity is currently a popular, but ill-defined, word in English primary education. The concept of creativity has been a recurring feature of government reports, education acts and advice to teachers but the history of creativity is cycles of promotion followed by a swing away from creativity towards a ‘back to basics’ model. This cyclical nature […]
In this paper the author examines changes in the primary curriculum in this country since the time of the Plowden Report of 1967. Since that time there have been several changes of emphasis from teaching through subjects to teaching through contexts. The author considers some of the reasons for this oscillation and suggests some principles […]