The UK's new Coalition Government looks as if it will make the narrow, traditional school curriculum we have now even narrower and more rooted in the past. The Labour government made timid moves to improve the National Curriculum, not least by equipping it with a few general aims, even though these meshed poorly on to intra-subject aims. Michael…

This paper focuses on history in the New Zealand curriculum in light of its seemingly confused curriculum identity despite revision processes of the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC; New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2007). Some thinking about curriculum as a socially constructed political process that teachers can actively engage with sets the scene…

The European Commission has long supported and helped further the cause of entrepreneurship education. Within the education and training agenda, the strategic framework for European cooperation, Education and Training 2020 has, as its fourth long-term strategic objective, to enhance creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all…

This study is interested in understanding the configurations of knowledge underpinning three examples of curriculum policy texts in the specific case of the school subject of geography. The three policy texts are the 1991 Geography National Curriculum (GNC), the "Opening minds" curriculum and the GNC 2007. I start with the proposal that…

This study examines the usage and contexts of "wellbeing" in New Zealand's curriculum, a formal statement of education policy enacted by a democratically elected government. The analysis is guided by a current model of student wellbeing rooted in seven, interdependent domains: "Having," "Being," "Relating,"…

In educational research, emotion has attracted substantial attention since the mid-1990s. While there are many studies of teacher emotion in educational change in the West, there is a remarkable dearth of such studies in China. This qualitative study attempts to address this issue by examining teachers' emotional experiences in the national…

This article examines the complex development and contradictory current state of affairs of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Finland. Rather than presenting a harmonious picture of the Finnish ECEC system, the authors have chosen to look at the problematic way in which national policies concerning ECEC have been interpreted and…

In this paper, the development of educational policy and curricula in relation to the development of a multicultural society in Iceland are critically discussed. Neither policy nor national curriculum guides refer particularly to multicultural society, multicultural or intercultural education. Implementations of equity principles are not clear in…

Both China and England require state-funded schools to teach a national curriculum. While policy congruence in terms of overall intention is apparent, there are major differences between each country's approach to systemic curriculum reform which highlight contrasting attitudes to how best to effect change in schools and widely differing views on…

This article attempts to map the business and economics curriculum and explain some of the reasons for it being as it is; and to examine the number of students choosing to study the subjects and the "perceived relative value" of studying economics and business studies. In 1988 a National Curriculum was introduced for all 5-16-year-olds…

This article presents the experiences of nursery and primary head teachers (n = 12) on the English Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) after its first year of implementation in 2010. Findings are drawn from a subset of data (head teachers of primary and nursery schools) which forms part of a larger Department for Children, Schools and Families…

During the last several decades, educational reform in Sweden has been at once contentious, fast paced, and uneven as control of Parliament and educational policy shifted between left- and right-wing political factions. These political power shifts within Parliament created tension between national and local municipal governments and provoked…

The main goal of this study is to examine the politics of the development of intercultural education policy in Cyprus. More specifically, it examines the content of intercultural policies developed by the state and particularly the Ministry of Education and Culture. In addition, the study focuses on the challenges that may impede the development…

The revised New Zealand Curriculum became mandatory for use in New Zealand schools in February 2010. The ongoing reform agenda in education in New Zealand since 1989 and elsewhere internationally has had corrosive effects on teacher professionality. State-driven neo-liberal policy and education reforms are deeply damaging to the mental and moral…

This paper draws upon research evidence obtained as metaphors from biographical narrative interviews of Mandarin teachers of English working in China, which has illustrated the problems of teachers adapting to change in Chinese schools. The research has attempted to explore teachers' professional adaptation under strenuous challenges, that is, the…