Between 1952 and 1979, social work was banned as an academic discipline, and social workers relied on experience alone in carrying out their duties. Since then social work training has been offered in universities and vocational schools; and existing social workers have received in-service training. However, social work education is still in its…

Both in China and internationally, educators and policy makers claim that vocational education and training (VET) is essential for the sound economic development of a country and the physical and social well-being of its population. However, China looks back upon a century-long history of rejection when it comes to popularising VET, despite…

Career and Technical Education (CTE) balances the pull between the practical and theoretical by applying academic knowledge to real-world problems, preparing students for a wide array of careers. Unfortunately, confusion and stereotypes still reign when it comes to what career and technical education is and is not, even as public sentiment shifts…

This issue of the "Journal of Curriculum Studies" presents a symposium on the recent work of Michael Young. Contemporary curriculum theory has little specific to say about how knowledge is selected, organized and transformed into curriculum content for teaching and learning. Over the last two decades, Young has taken a rather different…

This paper on the education system of Bulgaria is aimed at presenting its structure, current situation, problems and challenges that it faces, and on-going reforms leading to some positive trends in the development of the national education sector. At the moment of writing this paper in the year 2015, we will mark the 1160th anniversary of the…

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has a long-standing desire to be the pinnacle in corrections and correctional education. In 1891 Congress passed the Three Prisons Act, which established the federal prison system, prior to this Act federal inmates were housed in state, city, and county jails (Keve, 1991). The Act not only established the first three…

In this review essay, K. Peter Kuchinke uses three recent publications to consider the question of how to educate young people for work and career. Historically, this question has been central to vocational education, and it is receiving renewed attention in the context of concerns over the ability of schools to provide adequate preparation for…

Technical education has been identified as one of the most effective human resource development that needs to be embraced for rapid industrialization and sustainable technological development of any nation. Technical education has been an integral part of national development in many societies because of its impact on productivity and economic…

In this paper, following some brief introductory remarks, I provide a context to this Symposium by presenting a brief autobiographical account explaining how I became involved in curriculum theory and the idea of a knowledge-led curriculum and how I was led to write the paper under discussion. I then make brief comments on each of the six papers…

We review the ontological and pedagogical origins of International Development graduate education in the context of increasing pressures to "professionalise" graduate curricula. We apply Giroux's concept of "vocationalisation" to argue that professionalisation risks undermining the field's intellectual foundations in an elusive…

This paper explores the role of physical education in Labour Universities (1955-1978) during Franco's regime as an instrument of indoctrination and declassing of the working class. The conclusions obtained after the study and the analysis of various primary sources indicate that, initially, physical education was used as an instrument of…

In this article, the development of the Swedish informatics curriculum during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s is studied and described. The study's design is inspired by the curriculum theory presented by Lindensjö and Lundgren [2000], who suggest using the concept of arenas (the arenas of enactment, transformation and realisation) when discussing…

This paper examines the Rural Schools of Queensland. Starting with Nambour in 1917, the scheme incorporated thirty schools, and operated for over forty years. The rhetoric of the day was that boys and girls from the senior classes of primary school would be provided with elementary instruction of a practical character. In reality, the subjects…

Current state and national mandates focusing on academic achievement have drawn critical counseling resources away from career development. As the world of work radically changes and economic situations remain uncertain, the call for a return to school counseling roots based in career guidance has never been louder. The authors explore reoccurring…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and Thomas Huxley (1852-1895) had different, but substantial, effects on the history of education. Rousseau's educational theories supplied the intellectual foundation for pedagogical progressivism. Huxley's educational writings helped to enlarge the scope of the British curriculum to include such things as…