Evolution or Revolution? An Analysis of the Changing Faces of Development Education in the United Kingdom.

The following paper investigates whether and to what extent there may have been an ideological shift in the realisation of development education policy and practice over the past three decades. Using the United Kingdom as a case study, the paper provides a review of the literature in the field and investigates the extent to which the introduction of the Primary School Curriculum through the Education Reform Act (1988) may have had an effect on the teaching and learning of development issues within schools. Using a conceptual framework loosely based on the work of Andriotti (2008) which interrogates the narrative used in policy formation, the paper provides a comparative analysis of policy and curriculum documents. The overt and subliminal ideological perspectives adopted in these documents are interrogated to determine the relative positioning regarding how best development issues might be addressed. A critical analysis of findings is then used as the basis to determine whether there has been a de-radicalisation of the ways in which development education policy and content is addressed particularly in the contexts of formal education.