Current curriculum reform in Wales provides an opportunity for teachers to have greater freedom to develop pedagogical approaches that meet the needs of their pupils. The "Successful Futures" report recommends that teachers should have a greater autonomy in choosing how to deliver the curriculum, and ensuring it is done so in a manner…

This paper focuses on how physical education (PE) teachers interpreted and implemented a new, minimalist and traditionalist National Curriculum for Physical Education (NCPE) in England. Utilising a single-method, cross-sectional design, 43 teachers participated in semi-structured interviews which explored their approach to teaching the new…

This article, written at the time it was taking place, discusses the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on music education in schools, focusing on the UK. It discusses how schools and teachers have had to make a sudden shift to a largely on-line modality, and the effects of these on teaching and learning in music. It asks questions of…

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…

Until the late 1990s, Qatar's educational system used the intrinsic-nationalistic and cultural traditions of Arabic schools. The Qatari leadership and stakeholder was outdated; hence, they approached the RAND Corporation to examine and analyze the existing educational system and recommend options for building a new educational system. The RAND…

The study in this article involved a critical discourse analysis of five policy documents in relation to a curriculum reform proposed for lower secondary education in the Republic of Ireland. It examined the (re)positioning of governance in relation to curriculum and teacher education. Findings indicate a predominant clinical discourse closely…

The science curriculum is a focus of repeated reform in many countries. However, the enactment of such reforms within schools rarely reflects the intended outcomes of curriculum designers. This review considers what we know about the experiences and reflections of teachers in the enactment of externally driven school science curriculum reform.…

This paper examines teacher accountability and authority in early childhood policy. It reports on data from a study that investigated the influences affecting early childhood teacher decision-making at the preschool level in Victoria, Australia. Using a question raised by Ball "Where are the teachers in all this [policy]?" provided a…

This case study examines the experiences of two fifth grade teachers as they dealt with district mandates while trying to address their high-poverty urban children's learning needs. It reveals their personal struggles that led to both compliance and resistance. In this case, the act of finding the space to engage in the intellectual and…

This article explores teachers' experiences under high-stakes accountability and shows how the narrowing of curriculum depleted teachers' intrinsic work rewards. The article analyzes data from an ethnographic study of teachers' work in two high-poverty urban public schools. The study shows that as instructional mandates emphasized a narrowed…

In order to achieve the standard expected in the classroom, teachers benefit from continuing professional development that enables access to resources with which to inform their practice. Smith and Helfenbein's "Translational Research in Education: Collaboration and Commitment in Urban Contexts." "In The Collaborative Turn: Working…

This case study examines the experiences of two fifth grade teachers as they dealt with district mandates while trying to address their high-poverty urban children's learning needs. It reveals their personal struggles that led to both compliance and resistance. In this case, the act of finding the space to engage in the intellectual and creative…

This study explores the question of how Boston Public Schools (BPS) can strengthen and support autonomy and accountability across its portfolio to promote innovation and expand access to equity and high performance. Some of the specific questions guiding this work are: (1) Should all schools within BPS operate within autonomous structures? (2) Is…

This article is a critical review of recent literature comparing pedagogical influences in primary schools in England and Poland. It identifies curriculum, assessment, leadership, teacher perceptions and personal fears as immense influences on pedagogy and considers how these factors influence pedagogy. Comparison of England's prescriptive…

This article provides an analysis of the rise of 'scientific management' and 'social efficiency' theories in the early 1900s, traces their impact on the structure and administration of education systems, and critically analyses their contribution to the emergence of a new orthodoxy--outcomes-based education (OBE) approaches to school curriculum…