Abstract

The General Certificate of General Education (GCSE) English Language resit qualification occupies a
complex and often fraught position within England’s post-16 educational landscape. For tens of
thousands of young people each year, particularly those from socioeconomically disadvantaged
backgrounds, the compulsory resit requirement functions not only as a policy mechanism designed to
raise national literacy standards, but also as a repeated encounter with a curriculum and assessment
system that has already failed to serve them. Despite the political rhetoric surrounding “raising
aspirations” and “closing the gap,” the lived reality within Further Education (FE) classrooms reveals
structural tensions between policy intention, curriculum design, and learner experience.
The GCSE curriculum itself remains grounded in a product-oriented model of curriculum development
(Tyler, 1949), characterised by predefined objectives, standardised assessment, and the prioritisation of
measurable outcomes. National Examinations are an important part of the educational system. As part
of them, the GCSE is a national, high-stakes qualifications typically conducted at the age of sixteen,
which is the end of compulsory education in secondary schools in England. 1
While such models provide coherence and comparability, they can also constrain teacher autonomy and
narrow the scope of curriculum enactment, especially when paired with accountability pressures that
elevate exam performance above broader educational aims. Dewey (1938) warned against such
narrowing, arguing that when curriculum loses connection with lived experience, learning becomes
detached, instrumental, and alienating. These concerns resonate strongly in the FE educational
disenfranchisement.
Drawing on Freirean dialogic pedagogy (Freire, 2000), decolonial perspectives on curriculum reform
(Bhambra et al., 2018), and the emerging implications of the Curriculum and Assessment Review: Final
Report (DfE, 2025), this article brings together two voices situated at different but interconnected points
within the FE ecosystem: a practising FE English Language lecturer (Dimitrios) and a university-based
teacher educator and researcher in curriculum, decoloniality, and post-compulsory education (Reece).
Through a semi-structured dialogue, the article foregrounds the lived complexities of delivering the GCSE
resit curriculum, interrogates its theoretical underpinnings, and considers alternative curriculum futures
that might better respond to the needs of FE learners.