Problematic policy constructions of the purpose of education implicate professional identities and working conditions of professionals working with the youngest children. This paper builds on our earlier writing, to contest teacher professional identities in Australia, Ireland, Denmark and the United States of America, to illustrate the crucial…

In 2018, Australians Together, an organisation committed to promoting reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Australia, commissioned research on a trial programme designed to improve teachers' confidence teaching the Australian Curriculum's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum…

This article interrogates a curriculum recovery plan designed to obviate the loss of time due to the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, it analyses two strategies, the first to overcome time lost and the second, to reorganize the curriculum. A description of the landscape of inequalities in South Africa serves as a…

Although "VCE English Language (EL)" has been offered for twenty years in Victoria, Australia, the subject, and especially students' experience of it, has had little evaluation. Using data from four surveys conducted across seven years with over 1500 Unit 3-4 "EL" students, augmented by VCAA enrolment data, a profile of…

The new Australian Curriculum (AC) aims to prepare learners for the twenty-first century and in doing so, emphasize the development of critical (and creative thinking) as one of the "general capabilities" of learners. Critical thinking is seen as key in preparing "students to live and work in the 21st century" and…

Shared sense-making is suggested to be key for curriculum reform. "Shared sense-making" entails constructing a collective understanding of the meaning for reform, its significance and its implications for schools, through dialogue and negotiation across the levels of the educational system. This study explored changes in hands-on…

In postgenocide Rwanda, education is viewed by the national government as crucial for shaping a new, unified civic identity but also as a tool to address the past genocide. Drawing on Rwanda as a case study, this article analyzes national curriculum documents, school textbooks, and interviews with teachers and students in order to understand the…

Situated learning theory maintains that there is a relationship between learning and the social situation in which it occurs; learning is embedded in activity, context and culture. In terms of professional learning for teachers, this implies that effective learning takes place within a community where experts and novices meet and where practice is…

Educational research points to similar learning experiences across different countries, in particular that physical science tends to be an unpopular discipline among students from secondary school. The use of students' voice to adapt curriculum and implement innovative teaching practice has been gaining relevance towards the effort of potentiating…

Choosing which additional language to include in national curricula and when to begin teaching it are important educational policy decisions. The current study aims to provide a contextually embedded picture of such policymaking process in the Iranian context. More specifically, the study is intended to explain the agency mechanism of different…

This article analyses the sexuality education curriculum in primary and lower secondary schools in Denmark. Taking inspiration from the 'what is the problem represented to be?' approach to policy analysis, we explore how discourses of risk, health, quality of life, sexual diversity and critical pedagogy simultaneously permeate curriculum policy…

Curriculum initiatives with intercultural educative aims are not uncommon in many schools around the world. This paper argues that these initiatives and their classroom implementation by teachers is strongly impacted and influenced by the prevailing neoliberal context of schooling. The findings of a project working with teachers on implementing…

Despite the worldwide interest on transforming curricula, a case study examination of what really happens within an ODeL South African university context, has been much limited. By using psycho-social and social identity theory, we highlight the complexities involved in the process of transforming decades of teaching and learning practices. The…

In the field of second and foreign language learning, the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR) is widely-used for setting language proficiency standards within European, and increasingly global, contexts. Few studies, however, have investigated the ways in which systemic, macro-level factors within national educational…

The purpose of this study is to present global citizenship education from a Polish perspective. Analyzing the issue, the first part of this paper presents the development of citizenship education, followed by the current status of global citizenship education in Polish schools. In the second part of the study I draw attention to national curricula…