The notion of reading publics has a secure place in the sociology of Literature but its place in the educational literature around curriculum studies is relatively sparse. Here I address the question of reading publics in a curriculum context by examining school subject curricula whose very raisons d'etre are the creation of a reading public, viz.…

Debates about subject English in Australia are often conducted through the senior years curriculum. In light of the anticipated interest in the new Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) English study design released in 2022 to be implemented in 2023, this paper outlines the current state of research on the VCE English subject by mapping areas…

English teachers have long stood at the intersection of helping young people to read the 'word' and read the 'world' through rich learning experiences that tap into diverse literature, literacy and language practices with purpose, creativity and flair. However, given the complex set of crises facing young people, English curriculum and pedagogy…

The role and significance of schooling in maintaining and renewing social disadvantage is particularly evident in upper secondary education, and especially so in the high-stakes final examination at the end of Year 12. This paper focusses on Senior English in this context, with specific regard to the Australian state of New South Wales. Building…

The purpose of the article is to discuss, explore and advocate for the importance of self-management skills (cognitive and behavioural) for physical activity in health and physical education (HPE) in relation to the newly revised Australian Curriculum. This conceptual paper is presented as two halves. The first half presents an examination of the…

International education options have expanded in most school systems around the world with promises of curricular innovation. However, there has been limited attention given to the consequences of this shift for social inequalities embedded in pre-existing institutional hierarchies. The International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma, a two-year high…

In recent decades, several countries have made efforts to close the historic gender gap in physics through curricular reforms. Research indicates that while the acute underrepresentation of females in physics courses and related careers is linked to a number of interlaced social, contextual and motivational factors, the personal relevance of…

Secondary school level quantum physics (QP) courses have recently been implemented in the national curricula of many countries. QP gives opportunities to acquaint students with more recent physics and its applications and to discuss aspects of the nature of science. Research has shown that QP is a challenging area for students. Because the…

Across the world, history curriculum is often criticized for being ethnocentric or for privileging a nation's preferred historical narratives through which it imagines itself and the world. It is also a site through which ethnocentric narratives can be resisted. Within these debates there tends to be little consideration of the influences on the…

Australian secondary school students' entitlement to a comprehensive geography education is vulnerable. This study investigates the extent to which Geography is being delivered across Australia by analysing survey data from 270 schools on geography teaching hours, mode of delivery, fieldwork, and senior provision. Nationally, Geography averages 54…

In this third and final paper from the Delphi study One Direction, we report on participants' responses to four secondary school music curriculum scenarios. These scenarios present four possible directions for a C21 secondary school music curriculum. The scenarios were devised from a combination of ideas derived from the data from the earlier…

This paper reports findings from a research project investigating text lists in the Senior Victorian English curriculum between 2010 and 2019. Policy documents emphasise the need for the English curriculum to foster values of inclusivity and diversity of culture and for texts that reflect these values in constructive and affirmative senses. In…

Mutual support and dialogue across secondary and tertiary English is vital work in urgent times. In this article, the authors examine Australia's secondary-tertiary English education nexus, building on previous scholarship to explore points of connection and disconnection with a view to identifying sustainable ways of supporting points of…

The global COVID-19 pandemic is testing the responsiveness of school systems. Extensive discourse about disruptions to the standardized examinations students take in their final year of secondary school is symbolic of their high-stakes status worldwide. The interruptions provide an opportune moment to question the efficacy of exams as a…

The Australian Government, in its Professional Standards for Teachers and Australian Curriculum framework, requires that all secondary teachers actively teach the specific literacy of their learning area. Yet achievement of that goal hinges on teachers having first acquired the pre-requisite literate competencies during their own schooling. There…