Framing the geography national curriculum

This article looks briefly at the background development of geography in successive versions of the national curriculum, before focusing on the GA's recent campaign for geography. Initially this sought to make the case for disciplined subject knowledge, fit for a 21st-century curriculum, and so to counter the erosion of geography in English schools; with the 2010 election of the coalition government, the GA's campaign developed into a sophisticated and ultimately successful attempt to secure geography's place in a revised national curriculum. The article analyses the draft proposals for the new geography national curriculum (GNC) in relation to the government's curriculum aims, and compared with the GA's own proposals.With the perspective of a quarter of a century, it is possible to see several intriguing parallels between the origins of the first GNC and the GA's response to it, and to ask questions about the place and purpose of the national curriculum such as the balance between central prescription and professional judgement, and the idea of entitlement. It suggests that the GA's approach to disciplined ‘curriculum making’ may ultimately be a more sustainable one.