The curriculum as alchemy: school and the struggle for cultural space

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Abstract
This article examines the impact of the introduction of the National Curriculum (England and Wales) and standardised assessment procedures on the culture and curriculum of a large culturally diverse secondary school in London during the period 1993-1995. It examines the processes through which centrally controlled definitions of knowledge and its assessment are imposed on teachers and learners through state control of curricula and assessment in a market led system of education. Drawing on material from interviews with teachers, it discusses the incursion of the state into the daily life and culture of a particular school. It uses the imagery of alchemy to question the hegemonic role of a national curriculum in crushing the expression of cultural difference and excluding other possible curricula which recognise and celebrate the knowledge and experience which pupils bring with them into school.

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