Debate exists about the role and value of teaching spelling in the middle years of schooling. The increasing use of assistive technology in schools, has prompted questions about the time devoted to teaching spelling. Yet spelling and writing continue to be the means through which students are assessed as they move through school. In their study of…

The "Culturally Nourishing Schooling" (CNS) project is focused on whole-of-learning community efforts that aim to improve the educational experiences and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners. The project supports school-based professional learning strategies, broad school or system-level initiatives and deep…

In the 21st century, the idea that students should have opportunities to develop powerful knowledge has been influential in educational research. Social realism as an educational philosophy, and a focus on knowledge derived from academic disciplines, have been advanced as an alternative to social constructivism and traditionalism as a basis for…

Interpreting and enacting curriculum in any school is a complex undertaking, even more so in special school contexts where teachers must develop and enact appropriate curriculum modifications and accommodations for small groups of students and individual students. In special education contexts, educational modifications are changes teachers make…

This paper explores the transfer, translation and recontextualisation of Laurence Stenhouse's work, as encapsulated in the 'teacher as researcher' metaphor, to the Greek language and in the fields of research and policy in Greece and Cyprus. We first briefly frame action research work as emerging through and within a specific space-time (and in…

This article considers the place of knowledge in developing a socially just curriculum. It pursues the unusual route of a critique of Social Realism, a small but influential tendency in curriculum studies which claims that knowledge has been squeezed out by recent curriculum reforms and that there has been a descent into relativism. This paper…

This is an era of significant government involvement in schools in England, despite consistent rhetoric from the Department of Education to the contrary. In such a period, signs can be detected of the juncture between a postmodern identity and post-professional status, two models of teacher professionalism supposed in Hargreaves' work on the…

This article considers how best to conceptualise higher education curricula in a world marked by uncertainty, where knowledge and the foundations of knowledge are strongly contested. We then draw on conceptions of agency that derive from socio-cultural theorising to consider what "tools" for thinking and practising individuals may need to deploy…

This article presents a framework for understanding geographical knowledge in the context of the National Curriculum in England. It offers a cautious welcome to the 2010 White Paper in that it places emphasis on teaching and the role of teachers in selecting what is taught: it is broadly sympathetic to the policy thrust which seeks to rebalance…

The forces of globalisation affect the lives of everybody on the planet--but defining the concept of globalisation, and its appropriate place within the school curriculum, still proves problematic. This article engages with three key issues: our understanding and conceptualisation of globalisation; the impacts of globalisation on education; and…

Inferences from recent international comparative data on mathematical attainment, frequently quoted as justification for curriculum change, are critically examined, and the implications are contrasted with expressed curricular aims. Using characterisations by Ball (1990) and Ernest (1991), positions of key actors are analysed in relation to…

The role of the emotions in learning has long been acknowledged but is often overlooked. This article considers the impact one particular emotion, happiness, has on learning and the school curriculum. Recent reports have drawn attention to the importance of happiness (or the lack of it) by highlighting concerns about childhood well-being. At the…

This article considers the extent to which the English National Curriculum for science has influenced practice and learning outcomes, and briefly reviews the mechanisms through which this influence is exerted. It identifies and discusses three central issues for the review that is now in progress: the structure of the science curriculum; the…

The Transition Year (TY) programme is an optional, one-year, stand-alone, full-time programme offered in 75% of second-level schools in the Republic of Ireland. Aimed at those in the 15-16 age group, TY has a strong focus on personal and social development and on education for active citizenship. The implementation of TY in schools is seen as a…

The year 2007 was a significant one for the International Baccalaureate (IB) in England and Wales. Several milestones were reached, and the number of schools offering the curriculum reached one hundred. This article charts the growth and development in England and Wales of this continuum of international education and shows how the Diploma…