The poor success rate of policy for curriculum change has been widely noted in the educational change literature. Part of the problem lies in the complexity of schools, as policy-makers have proven unable to micro-manage the multifarious range of factors that impact upon the implementation of policy. This article draws upon empirical data from a…

This article considers the design of poetry within the UK National Curriculum for English, where it is conceived of primarily as a print-based medium. With reference to curricular detail, the recent Ofsted survey of poetry teaching in schools, and to original research, it describes the role the existing curricular conception of poetry can play in…

This article reports empirical work conducted by three university teacher education providers into how a major revision of the science curriculum in England, the "How Science Works" strand, has been translated into practice for 14-16 year olds in schools. Data were collected from pre-service teachers about their understanding,…

North American curriculum theorists Gonzales and Moll and their colleagues have argued that working with children's "funds of knowledge" allows teachers to build on what children already know in order to meet the mandated outcomes. The approach also has the potential to change the knowledges that are valued and which advantage some…

This article will focus on an event in the educational history of Wales in the 1980s which still impacts both on school practice and on thinking about concepts of Welsh identity. That event was the creation of the History Committee for Wales which was charged with devising a history curriculum for Welsh schools in the wake of the 1988 Education…

In August 2006, Australia's conservative prime minister John Howard convened a history summit in Canberra. The purported goal of the summit was the framing of a nationally-acceptable curriculum in Australian history. However, as this article suggests, Howard's hidden intention was to use the summit as a device for introducing a narrowly…

Some research within developmental psychology shows a slow period of development in children's expressive drawings during the primary school years. Developmental researchers suggest that "educational factors" could contribute to this dip in development but have not explored these factors. This study explores links between educational…

This article examines the many critiques of educational policies concerning the National Curriculum and the standards and testing regimes for pupils and teachers associated with it. It goes on to suggest that there is a danger of educational researchers and policy-makers arguing themselves into a "cul de sac" where an unproductive stand-off may…

This article discusses the detailed analysis of utterances in two classes where the pedagogy enshrined in the UK government's Literacy Strategy was followed. The pedagogy is set out in "The National Literacy Strategy: framework for teaching" (DFEE, 1998 ) which provides termly objectives for each year for word, sentence level and text work.…

The awarding bodies and their regulator carry out research to maintain the equivalence of examination standards. However, some criticisms remain, suggesting that examination boards may be lowering standards in specifications (syllabuses) in order to attract more centres (schools or colleges). This article reports our investigations on whether…

This article reports findings from a small-scale project investigating the introduction of the Curriculum 2000 reforms at post-16 in four state comprehensive schools in England. These reforms aimed to broaden the curriculum at post-16, to provide parity of esteem for academic and vocational qualifications, to promote participation and lifelong…

One of the objectives of Curriculum 2000 is to increase the breadth of the curriculum followed by 16-19 year olds. In this paper A level and AS uptake for the years 2001 and 2002 are considered. There was considerable diversity in the uptake of A levels, with nearly 21,000 different combinations of A levels being present in 2002 A level results.…

The question of whether religious explanations about the origin of life should be taught alongside scientific accounts in compulsory science education has sparked controversy in several countries for decades. An important site for these controversies is media reporting. This article presents the results of a quantitative and qualitative analysis…

This article reports the results of a research study on the impact of environmental education (EE) upon English primary school teachers, and it then discusses the findings of the study in relation to education for sustainable development, as EE is considered one of the two precursors of education for sustainable development. The article begins by…

This article examines the implications of the shift, in England and Wales, from the previous National Curriculum assessment model based on the assessment of performance in relation to statements of attainment, to a model based on level descriptions founded on the recommendations of R. Dearing (1994). Both models reflect a common sense view that…