Last week’s row over the “kids’ strike” and the content of the Year 2 and Year 6 Sats was, at its heart, a row about knowledge and the curriculum. What is a reasonable judgement about what children at any age should be expected to know?

Whether they are related to grammar or numeracy at primary, or the extent to which all young people should study a core set of five subjects in the EBac at secondary, questions about knowledge are never far away. One of the Coalition’s first major acts was to undertake an overhaul of the national curriculum, to make it deliberately more stretching and on a par with the content that is studied by children in high-performing jurisdictions around the world. Similarly, changes to the nature of vocational qualifications and other assessment changes have placed a greater focus on what can be deemed a “traditional” curriculum with heavier emphasis on knowledge, at the expense of skills.

The Coalition - particularly Michael Gove and Nick Gibb - drew inspiration from the work of the American academic ED Hirsch in particular, who Policy Exchange was delighted to host for a lecture last year. In this country, Professor Michael Young has also been writing for some time about the importance of what he terms “powerful knowledge”, which he argues strongly ought to be a necessary component of the education of all pupils.

One of the fascinating things about the curriculum debate in England is that the “knowledge” angle has been largely captured by the political Right, even though the academic inspiration comes mostly from the Left. Hirsch, for example, is an avowed Democrat who has described himself as a socialist and has always been motivated by deep sympathy for underprivileged young people. His research has shown that a knowledge curriculum places “all children on common ground, sharing a common body of knowledge. That’s one way to secure civil rights.”

Similarly, Young writes from the intellectual tradition of the Left, through Pierre Bourdieu and cultural capital. His book Knowledge and the Future School: curriculum and social justice - written with Carolyn Roberts - promotes the idea of “powerful knowledge” for all pupils as a curriculum principle for any school, arguing that the question of knowledge is intimately linked to the issue of social justice - access to “powerful knowledge” is a necessary way in which to engage in power structures more widely in society and to have any prospect of changing them.

‘Political appropriation’

Tim Oates, another of England’s pre-eminent academics in the curriculum field, and chair of the national curriculum expert group, has observed that “many things that have been written of ED Hirsch and his work on core knowledge…are wrong, and greatly misinterpret the origins and aims of the work on core knowledge. The commentary and reaction to his work is a textbook example of political appropriation.” Similarly, Malcolm Trobe, of the Association of School and College Leaders, has argued that “political considerations first, educational considerations second has never been a good way to govern our sector”.

So what seems clear is that we need to take a step back - to distinguish the questions of political argument and appropriation of a topic from the fundamental question and principle of curriculum itself. What is it that curriculum design ought to do, and what knowledge and skills, in what sequence, can young people be expected to undertake?

The fact that this argument is ongoing despite the new national curriculum having already been introduced shows that it is still very much a live issue. Moreover, with the prospect of more schools becoming academies by 2022, and with further changes to examinations and assessment a real possibility, the question of what schools teach and how that is assessed has perhaps never been more important to school leaders and to education policymakers. That is why Policy Exchange and ASCL are so pleased to be hosting a public seminar tomorrow evening to discuss what a powerful knowledge curriculum would look like in schools. We are delighted to be able to host Professor Young, Tim Oates and Carolyn Roberts, as well as a high-level audience of teachers, policymakers and experts.

Although the event is now sold out, you will be able to follow it via TES on Twitter, as well as a live stream on Periscope.

Jonathan Simons is head of education at the thinktank Policy Exchange and tweets as @pxeducation

Leora Cruddas is director of policy for the Association of School and College Leaders and tweets as @LeoraCruddas

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