A well-noted scholar in curriculum Joseph Schwab claimed that the field of curriculum in the US was in a state of decline by unexamined and mistaken reliance on theory specially in the 1960s. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the Ethiopian practical experiences of curriculum development and implementation context with respect to…

In this historical study, the author reexamines the relationship and role of social efficiency and scientific curriculum making in the early years of the social studies (1916-1929). The author argues that historians have applied the term "social efficiency" too bluntly to label and ultimately dismiss a variety of educational reformers in…

Despite the long history of curriculum studies in the American Educational Research Association, few past presidents have used their presidential addresses to speak about the curriculum and its importance in education research and teaching. In this essay, I examined the presidential addresses (and paper) of three well-known curriculum…

This article is mainly a reaction paper that reflects on the views and positions of Wraga and Hlebowitsh (2003) concerning the crisis and renaissance of the curriculum field. In doing so, a brief critical review on the two authors' views with regard to the ups and downs that the curriculum field has passed through, and most importantly the crisis…

This article examines how three national curricula for basic education in Finland reflect transnational policy perspectives from 1994 to the present. By developing a conceptual apparatus for curriculum analysis, we examine how national curricula in Finland can be interpreted as modifications of transnational policy transfers shaped by…

Mathematics interventions aimed at accelerating the learning of students with mathematics difficulties (MD) should be developed through a design science approach such as the Curriculum Research Framework (CRF). Precision Mathematics is a National Science Foundation-funded DRK-12 Design and Development project focused on building mathematical…

This reflective essay on the papers in this special issue of EERJ on Northern European curriculum analysis discusses issues of comparison and scale, and the significance of global and local specificities in curriculum research. Drawing on comparative examples from outside Europe, the essay draws attention to some commonalities of the European…

This article analyzes the rhetoric of "death" and "haunting" in curriculum studies by closely reading Pinar, Reynolds, Slattery, and Taubman's "Understanding Curriculum" (2002). Drawing on the work of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, I argue in the first section of the article that the rhetoric of death appears at…

In 1970, Joseph Schwab published the first of four papers that argued for a turn to the idea of the Practical in curriculum research and practice. In this paper, I revisit Schwab's original paper and explore the extent to which his case for the Practical is still relevant today. I first look at the past of the deliberative tradition in which…

In 2008, the University of Melbourne rolled out its restructured undergraduate degree program offerings. Rather than offering a multitude of faculty-specific degrees, the University started to offer a limited number of generalist degrees that serve as developmental pathways to specialist masters programs as well as stand-alone employment…

In this article the author explores the confluence of curriculum theory and the phenomenological by utilizing the assumptions and foundations inherent in critical pedagogical theory. The author will first explore the meaning of these concepts, along with an examination of the relationship between the phenomenological and contemporary curricular…

This paper re-examines Ivan Illich's ideas as expressed in his seminal work "Deschooling Society" from a 21st century point of view. It explores the validity of his ideas for our current education system. Illich's work was published at the time of a paradigm shift in curriculum theory which resulted in the development of Reconceptualization and…

The reforms of middle and primary school teaching that have been launched in mainland China over the past thirty years have been manifested in different ways and in different periods of time. The first to appear were localized and scattered teaching reforms oriented toward efficiency, after which commenced explorative teaching experiments in…

In this article, the author seeks to examine the effects of neoliberalism on curricula in Mozambique. Despite the fact that the introduction of neoliberal policies in Mozambique has affected the whole system of education, the focus in this article is only on curriculum reforms in secondary and technical/vocational education. The description and…

In the face of what has been characterised by some as a "crisis" in curriculum--an apparent decline of some aspects of curriculum studies combined with the emergence of new types of national curricula which downgrade knowledge--some writers have been arguing for the use of realist theory to address these issues. This article offers a…