It is our contention that we are in a crisis of curriculum that can be seen from calls to defund public education to the reduction of children to scores on annual assessments. We also point to a crisis in studies of curriculum that the critical tools necessary to consider and critique curricular practices have been intentionally removed from…

General pedagogical knowledge (GPK) is regarded as a central component of the competence that teachers acquire during university teacher education. However, existing research on GPK typically uses only one or two measurement points to assess development and identify influencing factors. The present study draws on an annual survey of pre-service…

While learning a broad sense of compassion (feeling/being kind), students are seldom given a sustained opportunity to learn why they feel angry at the suffering of the other and what to do with that anger. Prosocial anger that adheres to compassion is not deemed as official affective knowledge in schools. While defining compassion as a virtue,…

This study explores academics' changing agency in curriculum work in higher education. Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus and capital, followed by the metaphor of game, are used as tools to analyse stability and change in agency. The interview data collection from 17 academics was implemented twice over 3 years after two different processes of…

Primary objective: The significance of critical thinking (CT) has grown worldwide in recent years. In teacher education, for example, educators are expected to impart this skill to students but we lack comprehensive international comparative research on CT in pre-service teachers. To begin to develop such assessments, we comparatively analysed CT…

This paper outlines the development of a comparative research framework in subject didactics and applies this in the process of analysing the transformations from academic disciplines across different school subjects. The theoretical framework builds on the concepts of 'powerful knowledge' and 'transformation' and 'epistemic quality' within which…

The aim of this paper is to examine key change vectors shaping the undergraduate curriculum in the third decade of the twenty-first century. The paper begins by outlining selected definitions, foundational theories and conceptual frameworks underpinning this analysis of the undergraduate curriculum and its influences. Three key external forces…

This paper critiques the emergence of micro-credentials in higher education. It argues that micro-credentials build on the discourse of employability skills and 21st century skills within human capital theory, and that they increase the potential of human capital theory to 'discipline' the HE curriculum to align it more closely with putative…

Curriculum development at universities of technology (UoTs) in South Africa has become a matter of urgency given the revised Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF). The HEQSF required large-scale curriculum revision of existing qualifications and curriculum development of new qualifications such as the Postgraduate Diploma (PGDips).…

Although research suggests that many pre-service mathematics education programmes are weak interventions having a negligible effect on student teachers' knowledge, beliefs and attitudes, there is consensus that programmes that model and engage student teachers in reform teaching and learning approaches have the potential to effect positive change…

Previous research concerning teacher practical knowledge has revealed its epistemological foundations, content structure and research methodology, but little research examines its ethical dimension. Based on a four-year project in China, this study probes the ethical dimension of an experienced teacher's practical knowledge, explicated in a…

This paper addresses the question: What is the value of an educational excursion for first year students enrolled in a 4 year pre-service professional teacher education degree at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa? The excursion is an integral part of a first year module that focuses on the personal and professional development of…

The aim of this international study was to generate recommendations for curriculum improvement in family-school partnerships (FSP) by examining teacher candidates' understandings, attitudes and experiences. A survey of 1144 candidates in their first or final year of preparation at three universities, one each in Belgium, the Netherlands and the…

Teacher action research seeks to bring together action, reflection, theory, and practice; and it is acknowledged as a way to value and honour teachers' practical knowledge. The purpose of this article is to conceptualize teacher action research as "Bildung," applying Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics as a theoretical…

Michael Young's recent paper in this journal is correct; there is a profound crisis in curriculum theory, and to be intellectually viable into the future the field must strive to "bring back" in empirical study of curriculum. Also by ignoring the empirical content of knowledge and access to it in mass education systems throughout the…