British Conservatives happily acknowledge the debt that they owe to E.D. Hirsch. To understand the nature of their curricular project, and how it is located within the wider goals of education and social policy, we need to attend carefully to the character of this transatlantic borrowing. Its emphases and omissions reveal much about the…

Through a critical textual analysis of the content and structure of the new Australian science curriculum, in this paper I identify the values it encourages and those that are absent. I investigate whether the Australian science curriculum is likely to promote the attitudes needed to educate generations of children who act more responsibly with…

This article offers a critical perspective on Ofsted's (2021) "Curriculum Research Review for Languages" (OCRR). Whilst the OCRR contains much that we would agree with (including its underpinning principle of drawing on research evidence to inform policy and pedagogy), we are nevertheless concerned that it could result in unintended…

This article reflects on the epistemological steamrolling that the 2021 Ofsted Curriculum Research Review (OCRR) accomplishes: in part, by the positioning of the problem and solution through highly selective cherry-picking (omitting key causal factors); in part, through the discursive move of acknowledging complexity before offering simple and…

Aotearoa New Zealand's early childhood curriculum "Te Whariki" includes the explanation that "A weaver weaves in new strands of harakeke or pandanus as their wha¯riki expands…" (Ministry of Education, 2017, inside cover). The joining of new material to the whariki symbolises new learning. This metaphor of a continued weaving…

In this paper, we interrogate the current state of multiculturalism and multicultural education in South Korea and offer a possible theoretical framework that is lacking in the field of multicultural education. We provide three principles of multicultural understanding grounded in Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics to inform multiculturalism in…

There are sound educational and examining reasons for the use of coursework assessment and practical assessment of student work by teachers in schools for purposes of reporting examination grades. Coursework and practical work test a range of different curriculum goals to final papers and increase the validity and reliability of the result.…

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) has emerged as a global policy in language education which has been 'borrowed' by nations across the world. This paper presents a critical analysis of Malaysia's borrowing of the CEFR as part of English language curriculum reform with particular reference to policy motivation and…

Along with its multicultural transformation, Korea is experiencing structural challenges of multicultural education that has been often criticized as assimilation driven and immigrant education oriented. In fact, multicultural education targeted at the Korean public should be as equally important as the newly arrived migrants, if not less. The…

Taking the English National Curriculum as its main example, this article argues that an overly nationalistic, normative and "fact-based" citizenship education curriculum is failing to engage the dimensions of young people's identities which they experience as deeply meaningful. There is thus a chasm--albeit a false one--between official…

Nutrition and consumer education may be regarded as a constituent part of global education. It is, however, necessary to explore the connections between the specific subject didactics of nutrition and consumer education, and global education more closely within current academic discourse if we are to understand it better. Currently, there is…

This article traces the shifts in environmental education discourses from the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment, to the 2012 UN Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, and beyond through a biopolitical lens. Each of the earlier shifts is reflected in environmental, sustainability and science education policies and curricula--but…

Sexuality education is a compulsory part of "The New Zealand Curriculum" for state-funded schools. In 2015, the Ministry of Education has published an updated revision of their official guidelines for schools on the teaching of sexuality education. This paper employs Foucauldian discourse analysis to argue that this policy document,…

The National Curriculum for History in England (DfE (Department for Education). [2013]. 'The National Curriculum for England, History Programmes of Study: Key Stages 1 and 2'. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_-_History.pdf, 1) states that the purpose of studying history is to inspire pupils' curiosity, to 'ask…

Recently, creativity has begun to be talked about as a twenty-first-century competency [UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation). 2006. "The World Conference on Arts Education: Building Creative Capacities for the 21st Century: Working Document", Lisbon, Portugal, 6-9 March 2006". Lisbon: UNESCO].…