Although "VCE English Language (EL)" has been offered for twenty years in Victoria, Australia, the subject, and especially students' experience of it, has had little evaluation. Using data from four surveys conducted across seven years with over 1500 Unit 3-4 "EL" students, augmented by VCAA enrolment data, a profile of…

In the field of second and foreign language learning, the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR) is widely-used for setting language proficiency standards within European, and increasingly global, contexts. Few studies, however, have investigated the ways in which systemic, macro-level factors within national educational…

This study investigates Pakistan's secondary school children's constructions of their national identity in a Pakistani school in Dubai by drawing on data collected from students and teachers from the case school and analysing national curriculum textbooks used in the school. Informed by Foucault's concepts, the article problematises how the…

This paper uses a Critical Race Theory perspective to explain the everyday racisms -- racial microaggressions -- directed towards students of African and Caribbean descent during a non-statutory Black History unit, at an English secondary school. Applying a racial microaggressions framework to ethnographic data, this paper finds that experiences…

This article draws on three sources of evidence that together indicate hermeneutical weaknesses in exam courses on Christianity in English Religious Education (RE). It scrutinises a single exam paper and an associated text book from a recent authorised course. It conceptually explores features of a new style of long Religious Studies (RS) exam…

This article arises from a teaching experience at a state secondary school in London/UK that aimed at promoting a more culturally diverse teaching about Nature of Science (NOS) grounded on Global History of Science. Ideas from this field were employed to design four different teaching and learning plans (TLPs) that linked NOS and content from the…

This paper explores school level determinants of curriculum narrowing in the senior phase of secondary education, under the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). It presents findings from an analysis of longitudinal administrative education data (2011-2017), and Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) data on subject enrolments for Scottish…

The author looks at how apps, when carefully chosen and integrated into learning situations, can engage students in the learning experience. This article looks at how a teacher uses an app to assist his Year 2 class to learn about, and apply chance language, in a meaningful way.

Attending to current affairs and news within schools' curricula is a potential pedagogical strategy that holds promise for addressing children's knowledge, perspectives and agency in the world. However, our research suggests teachers' good intentions may be compromised by tension between the details of news media content and the curriculum as…

This research compared how the scientific literacy-related goals of the current Chinese and Finnish national science curricula at primary school level are actualised using a revised Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scientific literacy framework in the content analysis of the curricula. The content of the curricula focuses…

In this paper, we use the development of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) as an illustrative case to examine how national schooling reforms are assembled in Australia's federal system. Drawing upon an emerging body of research on "policy assemblage" within the fields of policy sociology, anthropology and critical…

The 'Does RE Work?' project, part of the AHRC/ESRC Religion & Society Programme, ran from 2007 to 2011. Drawing on textual analysis, ethnographic case studies and practitioner enquiry, the study identified core confusions as to the purposes and entailments of Religious Education as practised across the jurisdictions of the UK. This paper…

Alienation and moral disengagement have been described in the literature as some of the key factors for making some people more vulnerable to violent extremism. In this paper, I explore how mindfulness training, especially when paired with art therapy strategies, has great potential for supporting targeted educational measures for building…

The Commission on Fake News and the Teaching of Critical Literacy Skills, run by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Literacy and the National Literacy Trust, as well as partners Facebook, First News and The Day, has gathered a wealth of evidence over the past year on the impact of fake news on children and young people, as well as the…

In 2014, the Finnish National Board of Education launched a new core curriculum with the aim of meeting the skills and competence requirements of the 21st century. The purpose of this case study was to find out what transversal competencies Finnish eighth graders developed and how they experienced studying in a problem-based transdisciplinary…