Curriculum implementation as both an educational practice and a policy conundrum has been the focus of academic research since the 1970s. A new perspective is taken in this article by borrowing from the literature on policy implementation in multilevel systems of government. The concepts of "hard" and "soft" policy are used to…

Following the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region developed wide-ranging curriculum reforms, including project learning. A recent survey has indicated that over 80% of Hong Kong primary and secondary schools have adopted project learning as a curriculum task. Such an…

Describes the decision-making processes in an Australian multicultural curriculum development project that portrayed the life styles of ethnic groups from the Indian Ocean region. Describes four issues that emerged during the project and the complex process through which these issues were resolved. Includes references. (MD)

In Australia, school-based curriculum development (SBCD) encountered significant problems during the 1970s because of insufficient teacher preparation, unchanging school structures, and conservative community expectations. This article examines SBCD as a 1990s policy option and places it within a professionally oriented context. Because of equity…

This paper describes an inservice education program for teachers entitled "Participation and Planning: The Classroom Teacher and the Curriculum Process." Fourteen teachers with varying backgrounds attended the course. The objectives of the course were to (1) provide participants with experiences in the design, implementation, and…

The current curriculum reform agenda in Hong Kong is enmeshed in the politics of a post-colonial society. Yet, there is not a single view of what post-coloniality means for Hong Kong's school curriculum. This article focuses on analyzing the curriculum reform agenda that has emerged in post-colonial Hong Kong. This agenda was not only…

The processes of instructional materials development and dissemination used in four Stanford Program on International and Cross Cultural Education (SPICE) projects dealing with Latin America, Africa, China, and Japan are described, and evaluative comments based on a review of the curriculum development process are made. The major purpose of the…

In 1984 Australia's federal government decided to reactivate the Curriculum Development Centre, an agency abandoned in the early 1980's for political and economic reasons. This paper examines the context in which the center currently acts and the operations that it conducts. The paper first considers background issues related to national…

An introduction and a case study are provided from a seminar concerned with the extension of transition-from-school-to-work initiatives to secondary schooling. The introduction discusses the purposes of drawing together the case studies--to indicate how Australian government policy concerned with school-to-work transition was implemented at the…