The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical CAL project, HOLD ON, which developed leadership towards social, economic and ecological sustainability. The latter became a target area in the 2018 reform of the Swedish preschool's national curriculum, Lpfo18. A "Whole School Approach" (WSA) and "Education for Sustainable…

Algebraic Thinking (AT) and Computational Thinking (CT) are pivotal competencies in modern education, fostering problem-solving skills and logical reasoning among students. This study presents the initial hypotheses, theoretical framework, and key steps undertaken to explore characterized learning paths and assign practice-relevant tasks. This…

Competence-based approaches (CBAs) in education have become an internationally important educational policy concept in recent decades. However, a substantial body of research has suggested that in order to understand and explain the evolution of CBAs, there is a need to analyse curriculum-making as a complex and multi-layered practice. To…

This study focuses on the different ways in which teachers relate their situational agency and professional assignment to the national curriculum content and curriculum dilemmas. It builds theoretically on transactional realism and empirically on analyses of interviews with teachers, exploring the nature of teacher agency during the enactment of a…

In 2011, the Swedish National Agency for Education introduced a new national curriculum. The curriculum contained a number of new terms. One in particular proved problematic for physical educators -- "complex movement." The confusion surrounding the term could be seen as somewhat unexpected since movement is and has been a central…

This special issue examines curricula and their histories as they have evolved throughout the 21st century as part of transnational and national education policies. With a specific focus on the policy transitions that are taking place in Europe, the articles demonstrate how curriculum making processes move in different directions, following their…

In this paper we will address the impact of Europeanisation on national curriculum reforms with empirical reference to the Swedish compulsory school, and based on the concept of competence discuss the question of transnational curriculum convergence. The main interest is directed towards how the answers to the question of what counts as knowledge…

More than 15 years after the introduction of a standards-based curriculum reform, the mathematics teachers are positive towards the reform message but have not changed their classroom practice accordingly. To improve the impact of future reforms, it is important to learn from this situation and to better understand the role of the national policy…

In Sweden a Revised National Curriculum for Preschool (Lpfö 98, revised 2010) was implemented on 1 July 2011. The purpose of the revised curriculum was to increase the quality in the Swedish preschool by stressing the scientific basis. The aim was to explore how four heads of preschool reflect on the curriculum and the quality in preschool. This…

Due to European agreements and policy expectations, national authorities are revising their formal curricula in line with an evidence-oriented policy. The article explores how new trends in formulating curricula can be regarded as an outcome of experts' semantics and impact on education policy. The article reanalyses documentation from a project,…

The article examines the stability and success of ideas within pedagogical discourses. Why do certain ideas attract actors and how does change come about? These general questions are dealt with through considering the example of the swift spread of an interdisciplinary idea, "arbetsområde" (translated to "spheres of work") in…

Based on the EU FP 7 project, PROFILES, this article presents our findings from a three-round Delphi study conducted in Sweden that aimed at establishing a consensus on how science education should be developed for citizens to enhance civic scientific literacy. A total of 100 stakeholders (9th graders, school teachers, scientists, and science…

In Sweden, as in many countries before Sweden, boys' academic achievements are getting considerable attention as the big gender issue. The Swedish gender equality policy that was put on the agenda in the 1970s is now associated with extreme discussions. This study aims to explore how gender equality was discussed in the 1970s, in connection with…

The focus in this article is the extent to which the school subject of Swedish in the new national curriculum in Sweden introduced in 2011 (compulsory school) has been updated in relation to ways of discussing mother tongue education. Discourse analysis is used to analyse the syllabus for Swedish from 2011. A comparison is made with the previous…

In 2011, a new curriculum and set of school organisational structures were introduced in Sweden. One consequence is a much stronger separation of the theoretical and vocational programmes in the upper secondary school. The paper explores the nature of the changes that have occurred particularly in relation to mathematics studies, the background…