There is no general agreement about the best way of organising the curriculum. Debates often pitch a subject-based curriculum against an integrated curriculum although there is great variation among integrated approaches. Numerous claims have been made regarding the comparative merits of different approaches, but many scholars have noted the lack…

Vocational education and training (VET) and higher education serve different purposes and pursue different logics. However, in view of the increase of qualification requirements for skilled workers, many education systems are responding by linking VET to higher education. Therefore, the borders between VET and higher education have developed in…

When integrated into online curriculum modules for students, educative curriculum materials (ECMs) can enhance teachers' enactment of these modules. This study investigated (1) the use of digitally enhanced ECMs built into an online plate tectonics curriculum module by teachers with different backgrounds and teaching experience, (2) the…

Teaching a language subject in school is often referred to as being different and unique compared to teaching a non-language subject. However, the few existing studies examining this claim have mainly investigated the viewpoints of teachers who only teach one language, thus failing to achieve a comparison based on teachers' actual lived…

This report looks at the provision of A level subjects in England in 2021. Provision in a subject is defined as the number or percentage of schools with at least one student taking the subject. This report was produced using publicly available data from the Department for Education's (DfE) "Find and compare schools in England" service…

Students' school success and general well-being can improve when they believe in their academic abilities and are aware of the purpose of their studies. This paper explores the development of Icelandic students' academic self-concept and sense of purpose in their learning. The focus is directed at the period from the end of compulsory school…

This literature review examined trends in the curricular focus and type of articles published on secondary curriculum for transition-age students with severe disabilities across a 40-year time span (1981-2020). We analyzed 397 peer-reviewed journal articles by decade. The number of articles published steadily declined from 1981-1990 to 2001-2010…

Peers may both promote conformity and discourage ambitious choices when students make educational decisions. Low socioeconomic status (SES) students may be more sensitive to outside influence than high SES students when making educational decisions. Considering the case of choosing between an academic track and a vocational track in Danish…

Although antecedents of teacher identity have been well investigated over decades, the role of demographic variables in teacher identity variance has received relatively little research attention. The study explored how teacher identity (grounded in a four-indicator model comprising occupational commitment, teacher self-efficacy, job satisfaction,…

The immediate impacts of COVID-19 on K12 schooling are well known. Over nearly 18 months, students' academic performance and mental health deteriorated dramatically. This study aims to identify if and how the pandemic led to longer-term changes in core aspects of schooling. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 31 teachers and administrators…

In Switzerland, baccalaureate school is still considered to be the royal road to a university education and the elite path for the social reproduction of the upper class. However, cantonal enrollment to baccalaureate school varies widely due to Swiss federalism. There is a recurring debate on whether access to baccalaureate school is fair and…

This paper studies whether specialized academic fields of study in secondary school, which are common in many countries, affect earnings as an adult. Identification is challenging, because it requires not just quasi-random variation into fields of study, but also an accounting of individuals' next-best alternatives. Our setting is Sweden, where at…

Purpose: The focus of this article is on Swedish vocational students' own thoughts about different types of knowledge and how these thoughts relate to the forming of their vocational identities. The article reports on a study which investigates how vocational students handle the division between theoretical and practical knowledge as they learn to…

In this study I examine the academic self-concept (ASC) of students who changed from vocational to academic tracking at the transition to upper secondary education in Germany. I ask (1) how their ASC differs to the ASC of their established peers in academic tracking, and (2) how their ASC is affected by the change in the learning environment.…

Educational tracking has been studied abundantly in previous research. However, the transitions of Newly Arrived Migrant Students (NAMS) to these (tracked) educational settings are understudied. To facilitate the transition of NAMS to regular secondary education, many countries organise reception classes. This is a separate form of education for…