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Educational literature shows that students from working-class backgrounds are significantly less likely to persist to completion in higher education than middle-class students. This paper draws theoretically and analytically on Bernstein’s ([1990.Class, Codes and Control, Volume IV: The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse. London: Routledge; 2000.Pedagogy, Symbolic Control, and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield]) thesis that, through differential framing of pedagogic practices, the curriculum has capacity to accommodateallgroups of students. Pedagogic practices in both a science foundation course and four first-year mainstream science courses in a higher education institution in the South African context are examined. Whilst the foundation course exhibits modalities that generally favour access, the mainstream courses have some modalities that appear to be constraining. It is argued from a social justice perspective that holistic curriculum transformations that better enable epistemic transitions are an urgent imperative, and that consideration of differential framing of pedagogic modalities offer a close-up empirical means of conceptualising such reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on the theoretical and analytical tools from the sociology of education, in particular the work of Basil Bernstein and Karl Maton, the paper explores the tensions within curriculum reform discourses and how these tensions play out in different global contexts. The analysis focuses on two curriculum reform policies – Hong Kong and South Africa. On the surface the policies appear to be addressing a similar problem of inadequate schooling systems and proposing a similar solution, the restructuring of the undergraduate degree from three to four years. Drawing on the principles of temporality and specialization from Legitimation Code Theory, the analysis shows that the underlying logic for these reforms is very different. A comparison of these different logics provides insight into the highly contested space of curriculum reform and the implications for addressing inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]