Through the lens of contrasting curriculum cultures, the author considers the evolution of Irish curriculum policy and reform. Whereas our curriculum thinking and practice are grounded in an Anglo-Saxon/American culture, Didaktik curriculum culture and Stenhouse's Process model provide valuable alternative perspectives. Our prevailing…

This article seeks to explain how Aotearoa New Zealand moved from a consensus that the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) should grant a high degree of autonomy to teachers, to an emerging view that it ought to be more prescriptive about content. To do this, it takes an assemblage approach to policy analysis, understanding policies as constantly…

This qualitative study examines the changes introduced in curriculum policy in Kosovo in the latest curriculum reform of 2011. Framed by curriculum and didaktik education traditions theoretically, the findings reveal that introduction of key competences and associated learning outcomes in 2011 marked the most substantial departure from the…

The Happiness Curriculum is made up of compulsory 45-minute daily lessons with the aim of developing mindfulness, critical thinking, reflection, and social-emotional skills among students in more than 1,000 government-run schools in Delhi, India. Three units--Exploring Happiness through Learning and Awareness; Experiencing Happiness in…

The article aims to explore to what extent and in what ways discourse institutionalism can contribute to the understanding and analysis of curriculum change in a globalized context. By focusing specifically on curriculum change, this article proposes how discourse institutionalism can contribute to the so-called 'crisis of curriculum theory' by…

We are five early childhood researchers, from across Canada, thrown together amongst a series of alarming discourses, where developmental, economic, and neuroscientific rationales for ECEC drown out alternative theoretical perspectives, as well as personal experience, values, subjective knowledges, and the fierce passion we feel for our work. In…

This article adds to new ways of understanding the institutionalisation of Whiteness as subtle workings of race and racism within education policy. It presents a critical discourse analysis of how Whiteness works through the use and meaning making of the term 'cultural diversity' in six Norwegian teacher education policy and curriculum documents.…

The proliferation of non-state policy actors in public education systems globally has actuated a turn to new governance analysis within education scholarship. As part of this 'governance turn', education policy theorists have sought to clarify the interface between governance by non-state actors and public systems of policy formation and…

This article aims to explore the policy provisions and practices of the local curriculum in primary level schools. Data are generated from teachers, head teachers, resource persons, and Assistant District Education Officer by using interview and focus group discussion. In addition, document analysis is done to locate the existing implementation…

This brief is an effort to explore the meaning of the word "curriculum" when applied to working with infants and toddlers. The idea for the brief emerged from the early childhood community--specifically two groups of applied researchers funded by the Administration for Children and Families, INQUIRE and NITR. [See insert box on page 12…

This article critically examines the relationship between recent educational policy and the advancement of second-level subject hierarchies in Ireland. The paradox of promoting an individual subject by means of the matriculation system, while also calling for a broad and balanced curriculum, is questioned. The apparent retreat from a commitment to…

The Malaysia government has placed STEM as a focus in developing the country towards achieving the status of a developed nation. The government acknowledges the role of women as equal partners in nation building. Thus, various policies ranging from economy, education, women's welfare, and human resources have been formulated through the years.…

In the last 20 years, there has been a growing preoccupation with fragile contexts. International development and diplomatic communities have focused on implementing Western-oriented education policies centered on democratisation efforts to transform fragile contexts. In order to understand what happens when education reform policies are enmeshed…

The "Australian Curriculum: History" has emerged out of a neoliberal federal education policy landscape. This is a policy landscape where pragmatic and performative, rather than pedagogic concerns are clearly foregrounded, and this has implications for curriculum development and implementation. A useful way to conceptualise the features,…

The word "geo-graphy" means "writing the earth". The subject of geography bears responsibility for engaging, constituting and configuring world knowledge, in other words, what the world is. This paper describes an enquiry into the nature of school geographical knowledge at a time of curriculum policy reform. In 2010, the newly…