Today, (3 March 2016) the Government has published the final subject content for politics AS and A level to be taught from 2017.  You can view the new content here  The PSA responded to the open consultation, you can view our submission here.

The PSA welcomes the fact that the Government has listened to feedback from its consultation with stakeholders and notes that several important amendments have been made that go some considerable way to meeting the concerns raised by the PSA in its response to the Government’s consultation. There were several key areas of concern that the Association along with PSA specialist groups raised during the consultation period.

One area related to the introduction of political ideas and political ideology as a compulsory topic. Concern was raised both regarding the lack of diversity in the cited thinkers as well as the exclusion of some political ideologies – in particular feminism. In this latest and final version of the A level there is now greater diversity of the thinkers named in the Political Ideologies section. There is also a subtle but important move away from referring to these thinkers as key thinkers, and the implicit suggestion that the list is definitive. In its response to the consultation, the Government  notes that it sees these thinkers as ‘just the core theorists that all specifications will be required to include – specifications can include further thinkers and teachers are encouraged to include the work of a breadth of political thinkers in their teaching.’

In relation to the exclusion of feminism, the final subject content now includes feminism as one of five additional ideologies to be studied. A level students are required to choose one additional ideology from this list of five in addition to the three compulsory ideologies. Given that another major concern raised has been the amount of content and that there is too much content overall, the move to consider and include a wider range of political ideologies is significant – offering a pragmatic solution to the difficult question of how many and which political ideas to include. There is also now specific focus on gender and race in the section on democracy and participation.

Thank you for all your input into the consultation process. With your tremendous help the PSA has been able to work with the DfE in a constructive and productive way that has ultimately produced a revised subject content that is more engaging for students, which will hopefully help to attract greater numbers to the study of Politics in schools.