The United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia suffered a crisis of confidence in education in the 1980s that influenced their educational policy decisions. By examining these countries' educational concerns in the 1980s, this document portrays the national and international policy context that influenced school curriculum in that decade. After discussing the importance of societal and political context to curriculum reform efforts, political corporatism in relation to the economy and education is explored as the impetus for curriculum reform. Next, the responses of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia to economic concerns are examined each in turn. A final section reviews the governments' use of curriculum as an instrument of public policy development to meet the needs of the nations' economies. (30 references) (CLA)