In China, the eighth round of national curriculum reform (NCR) is the most serious, systematic, and ambitious attempt to transform the basic education curriculum system since 1949. Through a review of the contexts, processes and outcomes of the implementation of the NCR from 2001-2011, this paper provides a further discussion on three pairs of…

In this paper we focus on one facet of Asia literacy and examine the potential of intercultural understanding through two films about Asians in Australia, as the basis for exploring Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia "inside" and not through the more accepted mode of "outside" the nation. In doing so we foreground how…

This article examines the government's view, as revealed in its June 2012 National Curriculum proposals, of the purposes and character of the primary curriculum as a whole. The proposals are found to be deficient in a number of respects: in their naive, selective and inflated use of international evidence; in their treatment of aims as no more…

As Australia heads into a new era of implementing a National Curriculum, the place of Outdoor Education in Australian schools is under question. In the initial drafts of the National Curriculum, Outdoor Education has been marginalised. The authors propose that Outdoor Education should maintain a strong role, especially as processes of experiential…

As an alternative to looking solely at linear functions, a three-lesson learning progression developed for Year 6 students that incorporates triangular numbers to develop children's algebraic thinking is described and evaluated.

Whether the study of languages should be a core element of a balanced and broadly based curriculum for all pupils in England's 11-16 state-funded secondary schools is also part of a wider debate concerning how to harness England's rich linguistic and cultural diversity and improve the quality and range of language skills of the country. While…

This article examines the special nature of "Te Whariki," Aotearoa New Zealand's early childhood national curriculum, as a dynamic social, cultural document through an exploration of two art-inspired imaginary case studies. Thinking with "Te Whariki" retains the potential to ignite thinking post-developmentally about art,…

The recent review of the national curriculum, which places Physical Education as a compulsory subject at key stages 1-4, indicates a government commitment to the subject. However, given the contested history of Physical Education's priorities and practices, such commitment should, perhaps, be handled with care. The main strength of Physical…

In 1998 the Northern Examination and Assessment Board selected the poem 'Nothing's Changed' by the South African writer Tatamkhulu Afrika as the last of its ten "Poems from Other Cultures and Traditions." Published in the NEAB "Anthology" (1998), 'Nothing's Changed' became a favourite at GCSE for its vivid depiction of…

The distinction between learning to perform on an instrument or voice and learning music in a wider sense is one that is made in many countries, and is especially pertinent in England in the context of recent policy developments. This article argues that, whilst this distinction has come to represent curricula based on the opposing paradigms of…

Due to European agreements and policy expectations, national authorities are revising their formal curricula in line with an evidence-oriented policy. The article explores how new trends in formulating curricula can be regarded as an outcome of experts' semantics and impact on education policy. The article reanalyses documentation from a project,…

The aim of the paper is to research the important process of the history of the educational development of Estonia, the reform of the national school curriculum which began after the teacher's congress in 1987 and ended in 1996 when government approved the document. That reform was carried out in the context of thoroughgoing and dramatic…

Draft curriculum documents offer a glimpse of the future. They demand a response as all too often the devil is in the detail. What are the devils and maybe demons that await primary mathematics? This forensic consideration of the content of the draft curriculum for primary mathematics catalogues a lack of evidence to underpin proposals. Is the…

Numeracy is a general capability to be developed in all learning areas of the Australian Curriculum. We evaluated the numeracy demands of the F-10 curriculum, using a model of numeracy that incorporates mathematical knowledge, dispositions, tools, contexts, and a critical orientation to the use of mathematics. Findings of the history curriculum…

To varying degrees, education policy reforms around the world are driven by educational discourses relating to globalisation. At the same time, national and local histories, cultures and politics mediate the effects of globalisation discourses. This paper employs methods of analysis that draw on the concepts of "vernacular globalization"…