National curricula influence, and are influenced by, political agendas. Understanding political enmeshment (both overt and covert) in curriculum development is therefore vital for ensuring transparency and quality in curricula. This paper analyses how the Australian Curriculum is represented in the federal Education Ministers' media releases.…

Curriculum integration is a feature of many new curricula that have emerged in different countries since around the turn of the millennium. It focuses on removing the boundaries between traditional subject specialisms, to enable more holistic and 'joined-up' learning opportunities. This study draws on the experiences of a group of primary and…

'The knowledge question', addressing what students need to know and learn, becomes particularly relevant during the process of a new school reform. This paper examines the political messages and the role of knowledge in the current curriculum reform initiative for primary and secondary education in Norway (2020). The study is based on a document…

Turkey's politically induced 'curricular modernization initiative' intended a philosophical change and a system-level transformation from behaviouristic to constructivist-inspired pedagogies in the early 2000s. Science curriculum has been one of the curricula that has taken precedence. It has changed four times since then. The latest science…

It has been suggested that curriculum coherence is crucial in successful educational reform. However, empirical research on the topic is still scarce. This study explores how the stakeholders involved in curriculum development at the district level perceived curriculum coherence. Survey data (n = 550) were analysed using structural equation…

The study was set to elicit teachers' perceptions of adopting a new curriculum integrating Human Rights Education (HRE) into most school subjects and developing textbooks which could address the mainstreaming of the Syrian children into the Lebanese schools especially after the influx of more than 1.2 million Syrian refugees who migrated to…

Despite the advocated importance of twenty-first century competences in education, it appears that they are not systematically integrated in national curricula, school curricula and classroom activities. Potential explanations can be found in the current ambiguity of definitions for twenty-first century competences and the absence of educational…

The forces of globalisation affect the lives of everybody on the planet--but defining the concept of globalisation, and its appropriate place within the school curriculum, still proves problematic. This article engages with three key issues: our understanding and conceptualisation of globalisation; the impacts of globalisation on education; and…

Within Scotland's new curriculum, a "Curriculum for Excellence", physical education (PE) has been relocated from "Expressive Arts" to "Health and Wellbeing". The repositioning of PE could result in a shift in the way PE is conceptualised. In order to understand this shift, we conducted in-depth, one-to-one interviews…

In the Least Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs), School Based Teacher Development (SBTD) is sometimes advocated as a potential mechanism for improving the classroom practices experienced by millions of children in a complete school system, as quickly as possible. Robust evidence is required for approaches to be implemented with some…

This article reviews the relationship between the conservative newspaper "The Australian" and the development of a national history curriculum in Australia. The lead author surveyed the major Australian press in the five-year period between 2007 and 2012 and found clear patterns of difference between "The Australian" and other…

This article analyses and discusses the development of the principles of adapted teaching and inclusive education in the three most recent Norwegian national curricula, seen in light of curriculum potential as an overarching perspective. This potential highlights teachers' opportunities for choosing and adapting their teaching content. The area of…

This article examines how interest groups in Hong Kong have politicised national history, an unpopular school subject, for their own political ends and allied themselves with the PRC against the SAR government and its policy of not making it a single, independent, compulsory core subject in the school curriculum. The article argues that this has…

This study outlines the current and recent "state of play" in Israeli and Palestinian schools concerning the education of students about "the Other". This is seen to be far from satisfactory. An examination of the complexities involved in learning about "the Other" and of education programmes in other countries that…

This article considers the extent to which the English National Curriculum for science has influenced practice and learning outcomes, and briefly reviews the mechanisms through which this influence is exerted. It identifies and discusses three central issues for the review that is now in progress: the structure of the science curriculum; the…