In this article, I examine how teachers can enact 'powerful knowledge' (PK)--a curriculum principle proposed by Michael Young--by linking it with the scholarship of teacher professionalism (TP). Despite the significance of teachers' role in curriculum enactment, effort to understand this topic has been insufficient. I first indicate that…

This study investigates resource use by upper-secondary mathematics teachers in the context of collaborative planning. A thematic content analysis is conducted on audio-recorded teacher discussions in order to find out what resources are used by the teachers, how they are used, and for what reasons. The findings show that although teachers use a…

This conceptual paper puts forward the construct termed "teacher curriculum competence," which is an amalgamation of theoretical or formal and personal practical teacher knowledge and orientations in relation to curriculum. We situate the competence in institutional, political, and philosophical contexts. Drawing on research related to…

Curriculum reform was high on the agenda of South Africa's post-apartheid governments. Yet as time passed, the initial reforms were seen as increasingly problematic, especially when pedagogical realities met policy priorities. There was reluctance on the part of policymakers to give up what was seen as the democratic imperative behind the reforms.…

This article examines curricular development within compulsory science and mathematics education (grades k-9) in Denmark during a 20-year transition towards competency-oriented curricula. The article contains two main parts. In the first part, we describe the Danish case, emphasizing how international and national trends at the turn of the…

This article addresses how 'powerful' curriculum theory might be constructed from the perspective of the German "Didaktik" tradition--highly compatible with Schwab's the Practical. To start with, I scrutinize Joseph Schwab's model of curriculum planning and Wolfgang Klafki's model of lesson preparation and examine two theories of content…

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…

Building on and going beyond Young and Muller's theory of powerful knowledge, this article seeks to articulate a model of a future-oriented, knowledge-rich curriculum by invoking David Lambert's "capabilities" approach and "Bildung"-centred "Didaktik." The curriculum is "knowledge rich" in three respects.…

Human rights education (HRE) is an urgent historically and globally recognized challenge for societies. However, it has not been sufficiently addressed by empirical and theoretical research in education. Based on the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training (UNDHRET), there is wide agreement that HRE should include education…

This study builds on previous work in curriculum studies by providing insight into manifestations of the interplay between curriculum traditions, that are interested in education on a global scale and emphasized in the newest curriculum reform in Finland. This reform proposes a shift towards a competency-based curriculum, emphasizes integrative…

Bridging curriculum research with educational leadership, we examined the 2014 Finnish curriculum reform compilation and enactment process through the lens of distributed leadership. As a tool for the examination, we used the resource-agency duality model of distributed leadership. It explicates how organizational members create resources and…

This study examines the concerns of Irish secondary school teachers to the introduction of three reformed curricula, namely: English, mathematics, and Design and Communication Graphics. Major changes have been introduced in each of these subjects at different time periods over the past 12 years. The Stages of Concern Questionnaire was selected by…

Schools today face the challenge of preparing students to live, work, and prosper in a rapidly changing world. As a response to this global challenge, Norway has adopted a national curriculum focusing on the development of 21st-century skills. In this study, we investigate if and how the tasks in science and language arts textbooks in…

Curricular reforms oftentimes cause more problems than they solve. Teachers' being kept out of curricular activities is one main reason for a reform to plummet. In this qualitative study, we examined the Malian curricular policy from two aspects -- reform and teaching and learning. Guided by Fischer's argumentative approach theory, this analysis…

This study focuses on the school-work connection from the perspective of curriculum design. The aim was to uncover considerations underpinning the design of learning environments in vocational education. The research took place in the Netherlands. A focus group methodology was chosen to elicit designers' considerations, which generally remain…