Putting the World in the Centre: a Different Future for Scotland’s Education

Abstract

This paper provides a critical discussion of Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Scottish Education, which was published by the Scottish Government in 2022. After reconstructing the case made in the report for putting learners at the centre of Scottish education, I raise critical questions, both about the idea that learners should be at the centre of education and that it is their learning that education should focus on. I also argue why the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is insufficient as a basis for education. I then present the case for an alternative view, which neither puts learners nor the curriculum at the centre, but sees the physical, natural, and social world as that which education should centre on. I show how this may provide a more meaningful and more educational future for education in Scotland and elsewhere.