Bandwagon or hearse?

The new Curriculum and Teaching Innovation handbook (pdf) from Futurelab provides a useful overview of some of the changes and debates that are currently circulating. Following on the Department of Innovation Universities and Skills publication Innovation Nation, it seems that there’s now some scope to rethink things, albeit along certain lines. I still have my Harris, Lawn and Prescott (1975) and wonder how the debate has changed in 34 years. The contextual details have obviously shifted but I get the sense that the basic questions are more or less the same. It would make an interesting historical study, but not one I’m likely to embark upon.