Curriculum Studies

‘Making the most of the weather’: Analysing attempts to support outdoor learning in Scottish schools.

by Pete Allison

Thorburn, M. & Allison, P. (2012). Analysing attempts to support outdoor learning in Scottish schools, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 1-23. DOI:10.1080/00220272.2012.689863

The new ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ in Scotland outlines a policy vision of a more integrated and holistic form of... more The new ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ in Scotland outlines a policy vision of a more integrated and holistic form of education; a commitment which offers considerable prospects for increased levels of outdoor learning in schools (Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2010). With reference to Fullan’s theorizing on achieving educational change, we investigated four main implementation areas, namely: policy aims, partnerships arrangements and associated professionalism and sustainability issues. We collected evidence through a series of sixteen semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders at national, local authority and school level. Despite increased agreement on aims, we found that improving the frequency and quality of outdoor learning in schools was adversely influenced by the patchwork nature of partnership support at national and local authority levels. This has curtailed the prioritizing of outdoor learning in schools and of teachers being supported when trying to make use of their increased curriculum decision-making responsibilities. Thus, we found only limited evidence of policy-related innovation and considerable evidence of policy stasis. As such, building national capacity is proving difficult. We conclude that further research on how some atypical schools have managed to develop their programmes offers the best prospects for understanding the complexities of achieving greater levels of outdoor learning.

Luckett, K. (2009) The relationship between knowledge structure and curriculum: a case study in sociology,Studies in Higher Education, 34(4): 441-453.

by Legitimation Code Theory

Shay, S. (2011) Curriculum formation: A case study from History, Studies in Higher Education, 36(3): 315-329.

by Legitimation Code Theory

For papers by Karl Maton, go to: more For papers by Karl Maton, go to: http://usyd.academia.edu/KarlMaton

For more information on LCT, including papers, PhDs, recorded lectures, meetings, research groups, etc, go to: http://www.legitimationcodetheory.com/

Firth, R. (2011) Making geography visible as an object of study in the secondary school curriculum, The Curriculum Journal 22(3): 289-316.

by Legitimation Code Theory

Kilpert, L. & Shay, S. (forthcoming) Kindling fires: Examining the potential for cumulative learning in a Journalism curriculum, Teaching in Higher Education.

by Legitimation Code Theory

History Teaching, Imperialism and Decolonization in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1945-1958)

by Iris Seri-Hersch

PhD dissertation defended on May 17, 2012 at Aix-Marseille Université. Written in French.

Situating the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in the wider frame of British imperial history, this dissertation investigates... more Situating the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in the wider frame of British imperial history, this dissertation investigates school history in late colonial Sudan. Didactic materials, prescribed contents and pedagogic practices are analyzed against the background of five major developments of the 1945-1953 period: the shifting of British imperialism in Africa towards “paternalist-progressive” policies aiming at preparing colonial peoples for self-government; the polarization of British and Egyptian positions on the Sudanese issue; mounting rivalries between the independentist and unionist wings of Sudanese nationalism; the hasty unification of Northern and Southern Sudan after more than half a century of separate rule; and Northern Sudanese policies of Arabization and Islamization in the South as a tool for achieving “national unification”.
In a second part, the innovative character of post-WWII history teaching in Sudan is assessed by examining earlier patterns of Sudanese school history. History teaching in late colonial Sudan is then compared with history teaching in other territories of the (ex-)Empire (Uganda, North Rhodesia, Nigeria, Egypt, India, Great Britain). Two central postcolonial issues are further explored, namely the decolonization of school historical narratives after independence (1956) and the role of history teaching in fuelling the North-South conflict in Sudan.

Foreword to Curriculum Studies Gone Wild: Bioregional Education and the Scholarship of Sustainability by Nathan Hensley (2011)

by Richard Kahn

Loyola Marymount University, Peace Pole Planting Ceremony -- Remarks for Vandana Shiva (Nov 1, 2011)

by Richard Kahn

I was invited to say some words for Loyola Marymount University's peace pole planting ceremony in their university... more I was invited to say some words for Loyola Marymount University's peace pole planting ceremony in their university learning garden. Vandana Shiva was the noted guest of honor (I was decidedly the undercard!). Here Shiva's work is brought into relationship with the Catholic tradition of education and gardening. I then turn to Occupy and think about its foundations in the Digger movement, not just of the 1960s but at the birth of industrial society -- and how this was a movement of gardening and peace.

Estranged-Gaze Pedagogy: Probing Architectural Computing through Multiple Ways of Seeing

by Stanislav Roudavski

Cite as: Roudavski, Stanislav (2012). 'Estranged-Gaze Pedagogy: Probing Architectural Computing through Multiple Ways of Seeing', in Beyond Codes and Pixels: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia, ed. by Thomas Fischer, et al. (Chennai, India: CAADRIA), pp. 659–668

This paper discusses the challenges of teaching architectural design theory in a world transformed by the digital... more This paper discusses the challenges of teaching architectural design theory in a world transformed by the digital revolution. Design is changing in dramatic ways and architecture is changing with it but a well-defined body of knowledge that can serve as a foundation for digital architectural design has – as yet – not been established. Relevant concepts, methods and precedents originate in many fields that are typically well beyond the scope of reading suggested to (or encountered by) students of architecture. This material is highly dynamic, often contradictory and, typically, of varying quality. Presenting this developing body of knowledge to students is a difficult challenge. A suitable pedagogical approach ought to reflect the heterogeneous and volatile nature of the contemporary design discourse enabling critical analysis of existing design practices, evidenced defence of one’s own creative work and successful communication with many heterogeneous stakeholders.

Keywords: critical pedagogy; digital architectural design; architectural theory; architectural education.

Standards-Based Educational Reform and Social Studies Education: A Critical Introduction

by E. Wayne Ross

Vinson, K. D., Ross, E. W., & Wilson, M. B. (2012). Standards-based educational reform and social studies education: A critical introduction. In W. B. Russell III (Ed.), Contemporary social studies: An essential reader (pp. 153-172). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Making sense of contemporary US social studies education means making sense of it within the prevailing contexts of... more Making sense of contemporary US social studies education means making sense of it within the prevailing contexts of standards-based educational reform (SBER). Although so¬cial studies has yet, generally speaking, to be as standards- and test-driven as reading, mathematics, and science, it still functions within a dominant and dominating setting characte-rized across the country by myriad content and curriculum standards documents and wide-spread high-stakes testing on the state and local levels.
In this chapter we explore social studies education and SBER from a variety of perspectives and on a variety of levels. We begin by over/reviewing the nature and meaning of SBER, defining the term, for example, and briefly introducing its recent history, particularly vis-à-vis national public school policy work and the work of those national commissions and “blue ribbon” panels that influenced its development and evolution (e.g., The National Commission on Excellence in Education’s 1983 publication A National at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform) and legislation such as the President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and President Obama’s “Race to the Top.” Second, we frame social studies education itself within the larger milieu of SBER, focusing primarily upon the curriculum standards work of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). We consider here the creation and influence of such significant documents as Charting a Course and Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Third, we introduce and explicate the continuing debate surrounding social studies education and SBER, first with respect to the widely publicized debate over National History Standards and second with respect to more recent NCLB-inspired critique. We present, of course, both the pro-SBER and anti-SBER perspectives. And fourth, we situate the present status of social studies education in terms of SBER. We conclude by considering the “big picture” of what all of this might mean for contemporary and future social studies education, particularly in terms of purpose, curriculum, instruction, teaching methodologies, assessment, teacher education, and policymaking.

Standards-Based Educational Reform and Social Studies Education: A Critical Introduction

by E. Wayne Ross

Vinson, K. D., Ross, E. W., & Wilson, M. B. (2012). Standards-based educational reform and social studies education: A critical introduction. In W. B. Russell III (Ed.), Contemporary social studies: An essential reader (pp. 153-172). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Making sense of contemporary US social studies education means making sense of it within the prevailing contexts of... more Making sense of contemporary US social studies education means making sense of it within the prevailing contexts of standards-based educational reform (SBER). Although so¬cial studies has yet, generally speaking, to be as standards- and test-driven as reading, mathematics, and science, it still functions within a dominant and dominating setting characte-rized across the country by myriad content and curriculum standards documents and wide-spread high-stakes testing on the state and local levels.
In this chapter we explore social studies education and SBER from a variety of perspectives and on a variety of levels. We begin by over/reviewing the nature and meaning of SBER, defining the term, for example, and briefly introducing its recent history, particularly vis-à-vis national public school policy work and the work of those national commissions and “blue ribbon” panels that influenced its development and evolution (e.g., The National Commission on Excellence in Education’s 1983 publication A National at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform) and legislation such as the President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and President Obama’s “Race to the Top.” Second, we frame social studies education itself within the larger milieu of SBER, focusing primarily upon the curriculum standards work of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). We consider here the creation and influence of such significant documents as Charting a Course and Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Third, we introduce and explicate the continuing debate surrounding social studies education and SBER, first with respect to the widely publicized debate over National History Standards and second with respect to more recent NCLB-inspired critique. We present, of course, both the pro-SBER and anti-SBER perspectives. And fourth, we situate the present status of social studies education in terms of SBER. We conclude by considering the “big picture” of what all of this might mean for contemporary and future social studies education, particularly in terms of purpose, curriculum, instruction, teaching methodologies, assessment, teacher education, and policymaking.

The village in the city: Critical race theory, schooling and a life

by Kevin Burke

Burke, K. (2012). The village in the city: Critical race theory, schooling, and a life. Critical Race and Whiteness Studies, 8(1), 1-18.

The research is framed around stories—counternarratives in the tradition of Critical Race Theory (CRT)—of the author... more The research is framed around stories—counternarratives in the tradition of Critical Race Theory (CRT)—of the author coming to know his own historical racism as rooted in his geographical, political, racial, classed and religious upbringing in Chicago, United States. The paper specifically attends to the socioeconomic and religious aspects of race as defined and constrained by a place run through with its own racial historical leavings. As such, the work can be read as one continuous journey, or two very fractured versions of coming to know (the self and the boundaries around two fields of inquiry). The purpose is twofold: to explore the ways in which the disciplinary boundaries of two fields, CRT and Critical Geography, can inform a critical contextualisation of race and place for the author and the reader.

Towards a Post-Eurocentric Math & Science Education -- A Critical Interpretive Review

by Michael Baker

This essay reviews literature in science and mathematics education that assumes the possibilities for knowing the... more This essay reviews literature in science and mathematics education that assumes the possibilities for knowing the realities of the world through the official curriculum are reductively maintained within a Eurocentric cultural complex (Carnoy, 1974; Swartz, 1992; Willinsky, 1998).This review begins therefore by situating Eurocentrism within the historical context of its emergence – colonial modernity – and proceeds to define Eurocentrism as the epistemic framework of colonial modernity.  From this decolonial (or post-Eurocentric) historical horizon and framing of Eurocentrism, the second part will frame and review literature on the critique of Eurocentrism within mathematics and science education that represent alternatives to the hegemony of western knowledge in the classroom.  This literature was searched for and selected because it provides critiques of Eurocentrism that include specific proposals for de-centering and pluralizing the school curriculum.  The review concludes by summarizing, situating, and appropriating these two school subject proposals within a vision for a post-Eurocentric curriculum.

Student Evaluation of Curriculum Content for Effective Beginning Teaching

by Gavin Brown

This paper arose from a TDG grant to the 4 authors while they were all working at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.
This is the pre-publication version of the paper as submitted to the conference.

Recommended citation
Deneen, C. C., Brown, G. T. L., Lam, B. H., & Tsui, K. T. (2012, April). Student Evaluation of Curriculum Content for Effective Beginning Teaching. Paper presented at the 2012 AERA Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association conference, Vancouver, BC.

This paper discusses the findings of an 18-month TDG project on students’ perceptions of the outcomes embedded in... more This paper discusses the findings of an 18-month TDG project on students’ perceptions of the outcomes embedded in their learning. The goal of the study was to ascertain what students thought the outcomes were of the course, how closely these perceived outcomes matched the intended outcomes, and how important these outcomes were, from the students’ point of view for success as a teacher.
Participants were 76 students (n=50 EMI, n=26 CMI) registered in a compulsory course on Curriculum and Assessment in the Postgraduate Diploma of Education programme taught at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. 50 students were taught in EMI and 26 in CMI. The study also included participant researchers, consisting of two course instructors. We employed survey and focus groups in to collect data collection which were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively .
Results were strongly similar between EMI and CMI groups. Students indicated that most course content was important for success, however there was much less endorsement for material related to international comparisons and much greater endorsement of content on Hong Kong classroom practice application.

Curriculum as difficult inheritance

by Aparna Mishra Tarc

Curriculum and Pedagogy

Rekoumi, Ch., & Kalogiannakis, M. (2008). Diachronic study of the course of Geology in Greek school through the curriculum and the textbooks: a first approach, In P. Koumaras & F. Seroglou (eds.) Proceedings of the 4th Panhellenic Conference for the didactic of physics, 9-11 May 2008, 184-190, Thessaloniki: EDIFE - PTDE Aristotle University (in Greek).

by Michail Kalogiannakis

For more than a decade a significant decline of geological education has been witnessed in Greece. During the academic... more For more than a decade a significant decline of geological education has been witnessed in Greece. During the academic year 1998-1999 in an effort to reform the curriculum the teaching of geology in high school is repealed. Today, geology does not exist as a separate subject in secondary education and geosciences data is included in the curriculum of the course of "Geography" of A and B class of the high school, and electives in the second grade of Lyceum "Principles environmental Science "and" Management of Natural Resources. "In the present investigation an attempt to approach the presence of Geology in Greek Curriculum and textbooks in the establishment of the Greek state until the late 20th century. With the main methodological tool to analyze the content of the leaves of Government (GG) of Secondary Education for Science to approximate the temporal course of Geology in the period 1834-1999.
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Ρεκούμη, Χ., & Καλογιαννάκης, Μ. (2008). Διαχρονική μελέτη του μαθήματος της Γεωλογίας στο Ελληνικό σχολείο μέσα από τα Αναλυτικά Προγράμματα και τα σχολικά εγχειρίδια: μια πρώτη προσέγγιση, Στο Π. Κουμαράς & Φ. Σέρογλου (επιμ.) Πρακτικά 4ου Πανελλήνιου Συνεδρίου για τη Διδακτική των Φυσικών Επιστημών, Θεσσαλονίκη, 9-11 Μαΐου 2008, 184-190.

Εδώ και περισσότερο από μία δεκαετία παρατηρείται µία σημαντική υποχώρηση της γεωλογικής εκπαίδευσης στην Ελλάδα. Κατά το ακαδημαϊκό έτος 1998-1999 σε μια προσπάθεια αναμόρφωσης του Αναλυτικού Προγράμματος καταργείται η διδασκαλία της Γεωλογίας στο Λύκειο. Σήμερα, η Γεωλογία δεν υφίσταται ως ανεξάρτητο μάθημα στη Δευτεροβάθμια Εκπαίδευση και στοιχεία των Γεωεπιστημών περιλαμβάνονται στο Αναλυτικό Πρόγραμμα του μαθήματος της «Γεωγραφίας» της Α΄ και Β΄ τάξης του Γυμνασίου, καθώς και στα μαθήματα επιλογής της Β΄ τάξης του Ενιαίου Λυκείου «Αρχές Περιβαλλοντικών Επιστημών» και «Διαχείριση Φυσικών Πόρων». Στα πλαίσια της παρούσας έρευνας επιχειρείται μια προσέγγιση της παρουσία της Γεωλογίας στα Ελληνικά Αναλυτικά Προγράμματα και στα σχολικά εγχειρίδια από τη σύσταση του Ελληνικού κράτους μέχρι και το τέλος του 20ου αιώνα. Με βασικό μεθοδολογικό εργαλείο την ανάλυση περιεχομένου των Φύλλων της Κυβέρνησης (ΦΕΚ) της Μέσης Εκπαίδευσης για τις Φυσικές Επιστήμες προσπαθούμε να προσεγγίσουμε διαχρονικά το μάθημα της Γεωλογίας κατά τη χρονική περίοδο 1834-1999.

Religious Education in England after 9/11

by Dan Moulin

In the ten years following 9/11 there was unprecedented interest
in, and commitment to, religious education in... more In the ten years following 9/11 there was unprecedented interest
in, and commitment to, religious education in the school curriculum
in England. Politicians, academics, and professionals all argued
that learning about religion could foster “social cohesion” and even
preventterrorism.Accordinglytherewereanumberofnationaland
international initiatives to develop religious education as a part of
intercultural education. With a focus on England, but taking full
consideration of landmark transnational collaborations, this article
examines developments in policy and professional discourse concerning
religious education that occurred after, and sometimes as a
direct result of, the events of 9/11. It is argued that this emphasis,
often instigated at the behest of politicians, led temporarily to an
increased status of the curriculum subject in England, but that this
influence may have also led to increased instrumentalism, and with
it,associatedrisktothesubject’sintellectualautonomyandintegrity.

Class X curriculum of Bangladesh: inconsistencies in didactics and praxis

by Mian Md. Naushaad Kabir

downloadable PDF

In this paper, references are made to the English curriculum and syllabus specifications and the actual testing... more In this paper, references are made to the English curriculum and syllabus specifications and the actual testing practices to substantiate the assumptions that there are inconsistencies existing among the curriculum and the syllabus specifications, and the actual testing practices. Brief analytical descriptions of the documents are presented. Each of the documents is set against each other to crosscheck if there are inconsistencies. At the end of the paper, implications of the findings are discussed to initiate further enquiry into the issues.

Bilgi Yönetiminin Kavramsal Çerçevesi ve Başkent Üniversitesi İletişim Fakültesi Bilgi ve Belge Yönetimi Bölümü

by Mustafa Sagsan

Understanding teacher agency: The importance of relationships

by Mark Priestley

Priestley, M., Biesta, G.J.J. & Robinson, S. (2012). Understanding teacher agency: The importance of relationships. A paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Vancouver, Canada, 13-17 April 2012.

In this paper we provide an overview of a theory of teacher agency, and we draw upon empirical data from two schools –... more In this paper we provide an overview of a theory of teacher agency, and we draw upon empirical data from two schools – both secondary – participating in our Teacher Agency and Curriculum Change project (ESRC reference: RES-000-22-4208). Our aim is to understand why agency is achieved differently in different settings by teachers who have broadly similar values, beliefs and levels of experience in common. In the paper, we first set out how we define and theorise agency, and what this means for understanding and researching the factors that contribute to teacher agency. We present our view of agency as an emergent phenomenon rather than as a capacity residing in individuals. We then relate this concept to the work of teachers, thereby setting out a framework for understanding teacher agency. Against this background, we present findings from our research that highlight the impact of relational dimensions on the achievement of agency by teachers as they enact Scotland's new Curriculum for Excellence within different contexts of the Scottish school system.