Chapter 5: Evaluation and a Philosophy of Individualism

[Lawrence Stenhouse (1975) Britain’s leading curriculum researcher (then and now) argued that we need fewer Psychological, Sociological or Economic theories of classrooms – and we need to develop Educational theories. What this came down to was abandoning the application of formal theory, and the development of ‘practical theory’ drawing from immediate experience. This was a shift from ‘theory’ to ‘theorising’. At the heart of practical classroom theory lay the individual – the individual as the evaluator of the circumstances surrounding their life. In the Humanist curriculum he proposed, and in the curriculum research methodology he developed that became known as Classroom Action Research, the individual was prominent. How the individual teacher reflected on their life and values as came to be expressed in their pedagogical choices. And the students: how to support each student to develop their independent view of life and its challenges – and defend it in the light of alternatives among his or her peers. Individual judgement was the bulwark against the imposition of meaning and identity as happened to Richard, a student we will meet in a moment – and as we know every teacher suffers by curriculum and behavioural stipulations coming out of government. We have already seen how the Renaissance and its push to Humanism wrested judgement out of the jealous grip of the power elite and passed it to individuals. I am arguing throughout this book that this revolution in thought and action is still one that has to be fought for, and that our tiny field of evaluative action is one site for the struggle.