This research presents a review of the literature around meeting students' learning needs in Australian schools. It is referenced to one group of students with refugee experience who have been in Australian schools for over 15 years; students with a background of oracy from Southern Sudan. The development of psychological health and literacy…

This article examines the complex relationship between England's new National Curriculum and the neoliberal reform of education known as GERM. It explores contradictions between economic functionality and Gove's nostalgic traditionalism. It critiques the new curriculum as narrow, age-inappropriate, obsessed with abstract rules, and poorly focused…

This article discusses research on teaching and learning values education in schools. It offers researchers and teachers an insight as to why values education should be incorporated in classroom teaching. It is suggested that values education, in addition to focusing on moral education, is connected to active citizenship education, social justice…

Recent curriculum reform in history in Australia promotes "historical understanding" through discipline-based teaching practice. However, many middle school teachers are new to the scope of historical knowledge and skills required. This paper reports on a case study of five Queensland teachers in one secondary school who undertook a…

This article examines the dramatic implications of the turn towards neo-liberal education policies for teachers' professional identities. It begins with an analysis of some of the key features of this policy shift including marketization, metricization and managerialism and the accompanying elevation of performativity. This is followed by a…

This article explores how policy discourses of creativity have an impact on the way that secondary English teachers construct creativity themselves and the opportunities that they have to enact these constructions in their classrooms. In particular, it focuses on policy around language learning and creativity, identifying significant differences…

Increasingly, the imperative for improving educational quality in schooling systems throughout the developing world is harnessed to a particular set of teaching and learning practices, such as child-centred, child-friendly or learner-centred pedagogy (LCP). Such was the case in Timor-Leste where, after independence, LCP was heavily promoted as a…

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…

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…

In Swedish compulsory school, students can choose to study a modern language in addition to English, i.e., French, Spanish, or German. Since 1994, instruction time for modern languages has been extended, the learning objectives have been made more attainable, and national assessment materials have been introduced. The government made these changes…

The New Zealand early childhood curriculum, "Te Whariki" (Ministry of Education [MoE],1996), is frequently hailed as a community inspired curriculum, praised nationally and internationally for its collaborative development, emancipatory spirit and bicultural approach. In its best form community can be collaborative, consultative,…

In recent years, Hungary has been frequently criticized about press freedom issues by organizations including Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and others. In the current situation, it is thus imperative to understand how media literacy is positioned in public education. The objective of this paper is to analyze the 2012 education curriculum on…

This article examines the new National Curriculum for primary schools that has been recently announced by the Secretary of State for Education. The article discusses some of the implications of that curriculum for children and teachers and ends with ideas for how we can effectively campaign against it.

In this article, we describe how teachers in the Australian school system are educated to teach science and the different qualifications that teachers need to enter the profession. The latest comparisons of Australian students in international science assessments have brought about various accountability measures to improve the quality of science…

The purpose of this article is to examine recent changes in the geography national curriculum in South Korea through the lenses of three curriculum components that often find themselves in competition--subject content, educational processes and national/social purposes. In recent years, the prevailing national and social aims outlined for the…