Abstract

This paper considers some of the major issues surrounding the current debate over the development of the advanced level curriculum by comparing the views of the major parties concerned in this debate with those of the interest groups involved in shaping the outcome of the debate over the last major attempt at reform ‐‐ the N and F proposals of 1978. The latter debate is analysed by characterising the views of the various interest groups as reflecting the positions of the old humanists, industrial trainers and public educators of Williams's model , and it is argued that the ‘settlement’ arrived at in respect of reform of the advanced level curriculum was essentially in favour of the position espoused by the old humanists. A similar analysis is then offered for the current debate, suggesting some differences as well as similarities with the earlier one, and demonstrating the importance of arriving at a solution which redefines the ‘elite’ nature of the present advanced level curriculum