History in the National Curriculum: a lesson in curriculum devolution

This article will focus on an event in the educational history of Wales in the 1980s which still impacts both on school practice and on thinking about concepts of Welsh identity. That event was the creation of the History Committee for Wales which was charged with devising a history curriculum for Welsh schools in the wake of the 1988 Education Act. The story will be told largely by using evidence gleaned in elite interviews with the ministers, senior inspectors and civil servants most closely associated with the decision to support or accept the creation of this committee.

The significance of the decision will be assessed by charting the progress of curriculum devolution in Wales from the beginnings of state education and the implications of this for ideas of Welshness. This background will be briefly sketched, as will the background to the 1988 Education Act on a wider canvas. General reaction to that act in the Welsh Office will be discussed before the detailed implications for the subject of history will be explored in detail.

It will then be argued that wider discussions as to how schools should approach and reflect the history and culture of nations not only shed important light on devolutionary processes which were gathering pace at the time but also reflect the nature of Welshness as perceived by senior figures in the world of education policy-making.     

Howard's End: a narrative memoir of political contrivance,neoconservative ideology and the Australian history curriculum

In August 2006, Australia's conservative prime minister John Howard convened a history summit in Canberra. The purported goal of the summit was the framing of a nationally-acceptable curriculum in Australian history. However, as this article suggests, Howard's hidden intention was to use the summit as a device for introducing a narrowly traditionalist syllabus that would be personally pleasing to the prime minister. As it happened, Howard's plan encountered resistance from members of the history education community and, after several diversions and alarms, was discarded when the conservative coalition government was defeated in the general election of November 2007. The author was closely involved in these proceedings and this article constitutes a contextualisd memoir of events.     

Synoptic curriculum texts: representation of contemporary curriculum scholarship

Building upon past studies of curriculum textbooks in the US, this paper presents an analytical framework that classifies curriculum texts according to their representation of reconceptualized curriculum scholarship. It uses four indicators of the representation of curriculum scholarship in the analyses of eight curriculum texts published in the USA in the 1990s: the author’s stated intentions; the organization of the table of contents; the treatment of the forms of reconceptualism; and the ratio of curriculum and non‐curriculum journal citations. The analysis finds that reconceptualized curriculum scholarship has been at least mentioned, if not extensively treated, in most texts since the mid‐1980s, and that this approach is most comprehensively treated in books published in the 1990s.     

Mapuche political,educational and linguistic demands and public policy in Chile

Abstract

This article examines from a historical and contemporary perspective the political, educational and linguistic demands of Mapuche intellectuals and organisations and how they have been addressed by public policy in Chile. In particular, the article focuses on the Araucanía Region, part of the ancestral territory of the Mapuche people. We adopt a documentary and ethnographic approach to analyse the context, the development and the transformation of Mapuche demands in a political environment influenced and exacerbated by certain actions by both the state and indigenous organisations. The analysis focuses on education and the tensions generated under Chile’s neoliberal economic model, affecting the decisions and everyday lives of families and children, especially indigenous families, in the Araucanía Region.     

Power,politics, democracy and reform: a historical review of curriculum reform,academia and government in British Columbia,Canada, 1920 to 2000

This paper explores the interrelations between power, politics, academia and curriculum reform in British Columbia (BC) using social studies curriculum documents as a case study. It describes how curriculum reform occurred and argues that reform was undemocratic as it was largely the product of individuals with power who invited individuals with educational ideologies that were attractive to them to aid them in the revisions. These educational ideologies came from the USA, illustrating the influence of US ideas overseas. The non-democratic nature of the curriculum reform process may partly explain why teachers often resisted the revisions, and why government officials attempted to appear more democratic by increasing teacher participation in the curriculum revision process later in the century. However, curriculum revision remained undemocratic. The paper comments on whether the curriculum revision process in a democracy ought to be democratic or not.     

100 years of primary curriculum development and implementation in Ireland: a tale of a swinging pendulum

There are ongoing initiatives in curriculum development and implementation in Ireland and internationally in order to enhance the educational experiences and outcomes of learners. This article is the first historical longitudinal analysis of primary school curriculum development and implementation in Ireland from the 1890s to the 1990s. The purpose of the paper is to distil key lessons from the history of curriculum development and implementation to inform contemporary policy and practice. The paper begins by situating current curriculum discourse and developments in both a national and international context. It then delineates the three main curriculum reforms undertaken in Ireland in the period under review. The section relating to each period includes an overview of the societal context in which the curriculum was developed, the process of development, the content of each curriculum and its implementation. Three key themes emerge from the analysis – the impact of wider societal factors on curriculum, the impact of the radical nature of curriculum change attempted and a lack of focus on planning for implementation.     

后现代课程观与校本课程开发

校本课程开发已成为我国当前课程改革的一项重要任务。我国香港、台湾及其他部分省啼课程开发中存在着共同的不足之处，主要原因在于缺乏教育理念的转变，印从现代数育观向后现代数育观的转变。校本课程开发应以后现代课程观作指导。     

History education in comprehensive schools: using school-level data to interpret national patterns

This paper reports the findings from two large-scale national online surveys carried out in 2009 and 2010, which explored the state of history teaching in English secondary schools. Large variation in provision was identified within comprehensive schools in response to national policy decisions and initiatives. Using the data from the surveys and school-level data that are publicly available, this study examines situated factors, particularly the nature of the school intake, the numbers of pupils with special educational needs and the socio-economic status of the area surrounding the school, and the impact these have on the provision of history education. The findings show that there is a growing divide between those students that have access to the ‘powerful knowledge' provided by subjects like history, and those that do not.     

National curriculum and federalism: the Australian experience

Whilst the past 35 years have seen numerous attempts at national curriculum collaboration in Australia, these have invariably failed largely due to the constitutional reality that the States have responsibility for curriculum. Federal government involvement in curriculum can only be achieved, therefore, with the consent of the States. To achieve this, in 2008 the Rudd Federal government passed the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) Act (2008) which legislated the establishment of ACARA, a national education authority which brought together, for the first time ‘the functions of curriculum, assessment and reporting at the national level’ (Julia Gillard, media release, 2008). Among its mandates, ACARA is responsible for the development of national curriculum, one of the key election platforms on which the current Rudd Federal Labor government was elected in November 2007. Whilst the ACARA Act appears on the surface to represent unprecedented intergovernmental collaboration and a transition to co‐operative federalism; cracks in this co‐operative veneer are starting to appear. In this article I draw on critical theory to examine three varied forms of Federal–State relations spanning three different eras, as they relate to issues of national curriculum – those of corporate federalism, coercive federalism and co‐operative federalism. Specifically, I will argue that the ACARA Act is not an instrument of co‐operative federalism but rather a euphemism for a continued reliance on a new, more subtle form of coercive federalism as a means to ‘deliver’ national curriculum in Australia.     

Understanding visual and intertextual approaches in pedagogical and curriculum research: a pretext

In our globalised and hypertexual world, representations of curriculum reform are highly visual. The material world of these practices can be analysed through visual research methods. This paper is a pretext developed to explain the elements of the visual and intertextual approaches that can be applied in researching inclusive education through a curriculum focus. The pretext selectively situates recent developments in educational research that use visual methods as a part of the overall quest for ongoing conceptual and professional improvement of understanding a curriculum for all through practitioner and small‐scale research.     

Public narratives under intensified market conditions: Chile as a critical case

This paper aims to extend existing theorisations around the notion of public narratives by analysing their regulatory effects under intensified market conditions. My analysis suggests that public narratives constitute a liminal space, one that it is not exclusively real or imaginary, factual or normative, but that simultaneously affects and is affected by vernacular practices and wider discursive structures. However, this paper argues that, under extreme conditions, these public narratives become a rigidifying space with homogenising/normalising effects. To do this I look at a set of ‘obligatory scenes’ captured in tales of success and struggle of teachers, parents and students in popular newspapers and fringe media in Chile. These accounts share a common ground: national assessment as a framework of intelligibility for the practices of parents, teachers and students. The central claim of this paper is that under intensified market conditions the scenes captured in these publicly available stories become ‘obligatory’ storylines, and their protagonists idealised policy subjects.     

Fertility,the reproductive lifespan and the formal curriculum in England: a case for reassessment

Historical studies have shown that, since its beginnings, sex education in England has mostly focused on ‘damage limitation’, emphasising only the dangerous inevitability of pregnancy and childbirth after unprotected sex and the hazards of sexually transmitted diseases. This approach is largely based on restrictive notions of teenage sexuality, characterising teenagers as hypersexual beings for whom sexual drives continuously threaten to produce unwanted babies unless preventive action is taken. Analysis of current materials from many curricular areas reveals that this is still the case. Yet, recent demographic evidence shows that educated women in Europe continue to delay first childbirth for a number of reasons. At the same time they are also subject to seductive and deceptive media messages about the possibilities of conception at late reproductive age through reporting on ‘older’ celebrity mothers, and the role that reproductive technologies play in conquering infertility. In the light of these demographic trends, and the misleading hidden curriculum, this paper contends that discourses of damage limitation are no longer appropriate in sex education. Instead, if educated women are to gain full reproductive autonomy then new, more balanced conceptualisations of sex education that also incorporate appropriate messages about the finite nature of the reproductive lifespan are needed. Not only will this help schools provide comprehensive, quality, progressive sex education, it will also ultimately contribute to future national health and well-being.     

Remaking the professional teacher: authority and curriculum reform

Globally, national curriculum policies are up for renegotiation. These negotiations are shaped by international and national top-down accountability regimes, and an increasing turn towards curriculum centralization and standardization. The new Australian Curriculum (AC) is no exception. The AC is an important educational policy event, one in which understandings about teacher professional authority is being redefined. In this paper, we examine how judgements about teachers’ professional authority are used to defend, promote and explain the AC. Drawing on an analysis of policy documents and interviews with high-level policy-makers, we argue that the AC is opening space in the policy field to reposition teachers’ work by promoting a view of teachers’ professional authority as constrained and defined through the written curriculum documentation.     

政治课教学开发利用课程资源的思考

开发利用课程资源是实现有效教学的重要途径。在政治课教学中,要广泛开发利用各种资源激发学生的学习热情和动机,激发学生的求知欲。要开发利用政治课程资源就要充分利用校本课程资源,自主开发校本课程以及教辅资料;要从政治教师、家长及学生等方面全方位有效利用一切可供利用的课程资源。只有广泛开发利用政治课程资源,才能使政治课堂焕发出永恒的生命活力。     

学科课程的理论基础与组织原理

学科课程已有较长的历史.通过阐述学科课程发展的历程,分析学科课程的组织原理,从而对学科课程理论进行进一步的反思.传统学科课程注重文化的复制与保存,虽有值得肯定的方面,但其局限性也是存在的.它秉承哲学的实体思维方式,将学生视为"实体"而忽略其主观能动性;它将知识视为"实体",学科课程的组织就是对实体知识的组织,而忽略了学生与知识的主客观有机结合.学科课程理论指导下的教育弊端是显而易见的.     

基于课程论的旅游课程体系综述研究

课程论是旅游课程体系设计和建设的理论基础,没有课程论支撑的旅游课程体系设计与建设带有一定的盲目性。从课程论的视角审视当前中国的旅游课程体系,发现教师中心和学科中心模式占据了主导地位,而学生中心模式则相对被忽视。中国旅游课程体系重视课程文件建设,但忽视了课程实现的建设。因此,中国旅游课程体系必须重视学生的话语权,加强课程实现的建设,方能更趋完善。     

当代中国史研究中的口述史问题:学科与方法

在当代中国史研究中,口述史是一个二重概念。它既是一套学术体系或曰学科,又是一种方法论。作为学科的口述史与作为方法的口述史在运用方式上有同构性,但在研究理念上则有质的不同。有关回忆录、访谈录等是否算作口述史以及国史研究中的口述史是否可信等问题的争论,实质上是没有区分作为学科的口述史与作为方法的口述史的差别。口述史学是"记忆中的历史",口述史料是文献资料的补充。     

Inclusive education in Israel from a curriculum perspective: an exploratory study

ABSTRACT

Teachers of young schoolchildren are generally thought to have consistent ideas on developmental and learning problems of their pupils. Therefore, their assessments are also deemed valuable for the early identification of children at risk. However, this can only be the case if these assessments have a high predictive value for learning and behavioural problems in children at a later age. This article reports on a longitudinal research project whereby young children's teachers made assessments on their pupils’ development, which were compared with the later performance of these children in school. The predictive value proved to be insufficient, and the implications of this finding are discussed.     

学科课程的合理性理解与变革

学科课程是课程理论和实践的核心,既是课程理论和实践诸多问题的生发点,也是课程改革的立足点。但在当前课程实践中,一些教育工作者逐渐对学科课程存在的必要性产生了怀疑,忽略甚至放弃了对学科课程的深化研究。追寻学科课程发展的历史,澄清关于学科课程的相关争议,理解知识与经验的关系,剖析学科课程面临的现实困境,揭示了学科课程存在的历史必然性与现实合理性,为学科课程的存在给予了一定的理论阐明。     

Co-designing a civics curriculum: young people,democratic deficit and political renewal in the EU

Contemporary discussion of the ‘crisis in democracy’ displays a tendency to see young people as the problem because they are ‘apolitical’, ‘apathetic’ and ‘disengaged’, or point to deficiencies in institutions deemed responsible for civic education. This discussion normally comes as a prelude to calls for more civics education. This article points to a renewal of politics at the hands of young people relying on new media, and draws on evidence like survey research, case studies and action research projects. This political renewal is occurring largely in response to the assumption of political elites that a ‘politics-as-usual’ will suffice to address the major political challenges of our time. Against the assumption that teachers, curriculum experts and policy-makers already know what kinds of knowledge and skills students need to become good citizens, we make a case for co-designing a contemporary citizenship curriculum with young people to be used for the professional development of policy-makers. We argue that such an intervention is likely to have a salutary educational effect on policy-makers, influence how they see young people’s political engagement and how they set policy agendas. The article also canvasses the protocols such a project might observe.