Michael Young

Michael Young – Emeritus professor, Institute of Education University College London

Young also believes in a knowledge-led curriculum, but his approach differs slightly from Hirsch’s. He agrees with Hirsch that knowledge is an entitlement, but he believes that schools should teach knowledge that takes students beyond their own experience (‘powerful knowledge’). Young argues that the focus of curriculum has been corrupted, so that schools over-emphasise a focus on pupil attainment for the sake of the grade rather than the powerful intrinsic value of education. Young believes that a curriculum should provide access to knowledge that takes students beyond what they can learn every day. The struggle in acquiring this knowledge is an essential part of the curriculum. Young says that schools are fearful of teaching this knowledge and therefore close off access to it for some students by labelling them ‘nonacademics’. This leads to an impoverished and dumbed down curriculum for some students by lowering expectations of them. Young says these are ‘slow learners’ and not learners who are academically weak, they can learn the same things as fast learners.

Young believes that selecting this ‘powerful knowledge’ comes from the knowledge of subject experts. He also believes that knowledge is subject specific and subject definitions are important. Young believes that knowledge is fallible and open to question, so knowledge cannot just be a list of facts (as Hirsch subscribes to). Young believes that the curriculum needs to be taken out of the hands of politicians and senior leaders and given back to the experts in the subject field, the subject teachers/experts.

Critics have said that Young brings the purpose of education down to the pursuit of knowledge and nothing else.