Curriculum change is an intricate, lengthy process, requiring commitment, cooperation and compromise amongst the agencies and stakeholders involved; its development is more complex in divided societies, particularly when the subject content is open to contention. The addition of Local and Global Citizenship (LGC) to the Northern Ireland (NI)…

Social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies such as self-management and relationship skills are associated with positive outcomes for youth. Therefore, educational policies in many countries emphasise the integration of these competencies throughout the curriculum and specifically in physical education (PE). However, little research has…

Curriculum reforms often fail because teachers are asked to implement approaches to teaching and learning that are contrary to their beliefs about students and how to teach them. Since curriculum reforms are attempts to resolve particular educational problems, failures in implementation produce parallel failures to resolve the problem for which…

This paper presents findings on physical education (PE) trainees' and teachers' attempts to design and implement authentic curricular experiences, within the constraints of a neoliberalist context. It involved adopting a principle-based approach to promoting active lifestyles designed to align PE trainees' and teachers' health-related philosophies…

This paper reports teacher and learner perspectives on how assessment and reform influences pedagogical practices and behaviours. The research was conducted in a context of policy reform, at a time when Wales' revised General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) specifications had been implemented, and learners were preparing for their…

In 2011, Sweden introduced explicit standards for the curriculum used in compulsory schooling through the implementation of 'knowledge requirements' that align content, abilities and assessment criteria. This article explores and analyses social science teachers' curriculum agency through a theoretical framework comprised of 'teacher agency' and…

This paper reports on research that explored the experiences of secondary Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) professionals' simultaneous negotiation and implementation of the new Curriculum for Wales (CfW) Health and Well-Being (HWB) Area of Learning and Experience (AoLE) and policies focused on the transformation of Initial Teacher…

The study aims to gain a better understanding of the national large-scale curriculum process in terms of the used implementation strategies, the function of the reform, and the curriculum coherence perceived by the stakeholders accountable in constructing the national core curriculum in Finland. A large body of school reform literature has shown…

This article reports empirical work conducted by three university teacher education providers into how a major revision of the science curriculum in England, the "How Science Works" strand, has been translated into practice for 14-16 year olds in schools. Data were collected from pre-service teachers about their understanding,…

The "knowledge society" has become a central discourse within educational reform. This article posits that the impact of the knowledge society discourse on curriculum and assessment has led to the emergence of what the authors term a new-form/re-form curriculum, and it asks whether what is transacting in contemporary movements in…