The idea for this paper emerged from a recent qualitative investigation which examined the ways in which six Australian primary teachers conceptualised geography and geography teaching (Preston, 2014b). A finding of this research was a strong correlation between the breadth of geographical understandings and the years of experience and age of…

This article examines how three national curricula for basic education in Finland reflect transnational policy perspectives from 1994 to the present. By developing a conceptual apparatus for curriculum analysis, we examine how national curricula in Finland can be interpreted as modifications of transnational policy transfers shaped by…

In 2009 the Historical Association conducted the first of what has become an annual survey of history teachers in England. Its aim was to get beyond bare statistics relating to subject uptake and examination success to examine the reality of history teaching across all kinds of schools and to map the extent of variation in students' and teachers'…

This article engages postcolonial debate on citizenship education's power-knowledge nexus by interrogating the concerns of 37 secondary schoolteachers in a Western Cape Xhosa township, the first created during the apartheid era. Unmasking power-knowledge divides in the localisation of global norms, the data reveal state dismissal of indigenous…

In this paper we take on Green's (2017) orientation of the Australian Curriculum: English and consider what might it hold for the students of Australia. We set about analysing eighteen minutes of storytelling by a group of young 9-12 year old Kunibídji males from Maningrida in the far North of the Northern Territory in Australia, making this…

A well-educated active citizenry is the primary aim of our education systems. An essential component of a well-educated citizenry in a civil society is its understanding of the value of human rights and what it means to live with dignity in a community, where rights and freedoms are protected. This paper uses evidence from international and…

This paper will consider ways in which students are constructed as aliens in health classrooms. Creating the classroom as a setting for health promotion requires closer attention to those who make use of such space. If classrooms are places where diversity exists and is recognised, then health educators are challenged to consider how students are…

Steven Vertovec (2006, 2007) has recently offered a re-interpretation of population diversity in large urban centres due to a considerable increase in immigration patterns in the UK. This complex scenario called superdiversity has been conceptualised to help illuminate significant interactions of variables such as religion, language, gender, age,…

The role of the English teacher in Australia is constantly being negotiated and with every ideological development teachers are positioned to question their professional values and practices. Much attention has been afforded to this discussion. The purpose of this paper is to (a) provide an analysis of the evolution of the art of being an English…

Inherent in most school curricula is some sort of curriculum hierarchy--that is, an assumption that some school subjects are more valuable than others. This paper examines the epistemological assumptions that underpin one such curriculum hierarchy, which I refer to as "the traditional curriculum hierarchy". It is a pervasive and…

This report explores teachers' practice and thinking about one of the eight principles in the New Zealand Curriculum, learning to learn. It draws on data from teachers' responses to the New Zealand Council for Educational Research's (NZCER's) 2012 National Survey of Secondary Schools. The author discusses the meaning and potential of the phrase…

This paper presents the Sichuan case study: Badi Primary School, a semi-agro-pastoral town primary school in Danba County of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. Section 1 introduces the context of the town and the school. This is done by analyzing discourses of education policy in the town and the school. Through this analysis…

I explore a series of incidents in my English classroom, which occurred while I was preparing my students for their high-stakes GCSE English Language exam ('Paper 2: Writers' viewpoints and perspectives'). I thereby attempt to confront some of my own failings and biases with regard to non-fiction and the teaching of persuasive writing in…

Scotland is experiencing a period of radical educational transformation in the effort to raise attainment. Dearden argued for the promotion of autonomy in 1975 at another time of sweeping educational change. The principle of autonomy is firmly entrenched in Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence and seen as key to ensuring pupils develop a broad…

Australia's major state capitals are surrounded by highly productive food bowls, which are an important source of fresh foods for their growing populations. These food producing biomes are a rich resource for investigating key themes related to Biomes and food security, one of two Year 9 units of study in the Australian Curriculum: Geography. This…