Above: Sickle-shaped red blood cells

CREAM is a research project by Maurice Coles et al. to establish the extent and quality of materials reflecting the experiences of Muslim and African Caribbean pupils, which could be used by mainstream schools within their National Curriculum. It’s a creative approach to curriculum mapping.

The team devised a series of 14 key criteria or ‘Big Ideas’ for auditing Key Stages 1 – 4 curriculum materials and evaluating how these reflect the experience of Muslim and African Caribbean pupils. The key criteria include: commonalities, diverse perspectives, multiple identities and interdependence and borrowing.

These key criteria were used by Oldham local authority, who, in an excellent example of system join-up, worked with consultants, head teachers and subject staff to map their whole school curriculum and see how different subjects explore cultural diversity. As part of this project, subject specialists identified curriculum strands and devised activities that could be mapped according to the ‘Big Ideas’. For example, Science teachers worked collaboratively to identify concepts such as:

• Curriculum strand: Cells/cell function
  Activity: Sickle Cell anaemia
  Key criteria/Big Ideas: Commonalities & Diverse perspectives
  
• Curriculum strand: Variation
  Activities: The Melanin Trail & Data Analysis
  Key criteria/Big Ideas: Commonalities, Status and credibility & Diversity within diversity

Training was co-ordinated at Borough level to ensure that all primary and secondary schools had access to resources and space to discuss pedagogical approaches.