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This paper traces the sociological roots of the 'knowledge turn' and a concept centrally identified with it, 'powerful knowledge', beginning with the work of Basil Bernstein which was subsequently elaborated in a wide range of contexts-of-use in the broad field of curriculum studies. The paper distinguishes different reasons educators have for engaging with curriculum which the paper classifies into 'curriculum of' and 'curriculum for'. It goes on to discuss the particular pathos of specialised knowledge, and suggests ways of dealing with it; and concludes by suggesting paths going forward for bringing curriculum theory and subject didactics into productive dialogue [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR) (Council of Europe. 2001. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) has been widely accepted as a reference for aligning curricula, learning outcomes, teaching materials and assessments for European and, more recently, non-European languages. However, it seems that the CEFR has been more utilised on the macro level, i.e. for curriculum and proficiency test development and course book design rather than on the micro level, i.e. to support teaching and learning. The field of teaching Arabic as a foreign language is lagging behind on both levels. This paper reports on the initial stage of a wide-ranging project which aims at full adoption of the CEFR (on both the macro and micro levels) in a non-specialist Arabic language course. The paper, specifically, details the context and methodology of designing a CEFR-aligned Arabic curriculum framework based on the compilation of curriculum salient features from the CEFR document. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to describe an alternative understanding of Bildung-centred Didaktik through an examination of Wilhelm von Humboldt's conception and practice of educational reform—Bildungsreform, 1809–1810—in which the concept of science (Wissenschaft) was regarded as the fundamental goal and principle for curricular and didactic structure. Willbergh's call to revise Bildung with more emphasis on the pedagogical concepts is congruent with Deng's challenge to overcome the 'moribund' state of the contemporary Anglo-American curriculum studies. Re-examination of the classical figure, Wilhelm von Humboldt, who is quoted and referred to in almost every paper about Didaktik and Bildung theory in the context of curriculum research, but never examined in detail, provides a fruitful reframing of Bildung to the didactical principle. This paper utilizes unpublished archived material in which Humboldt argued for the roles and relationship between Wissenschaft and education for Bildung process as relational development with self and world. Humboldt argued that the purpose of school education is to encourage students to deepen their view on the world, resulting in both intellectual and moral development towards self-determination that consists of five categories: language, mathematics, science, arts and gymnastics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine key change vectors shaping the undergraduate curriculum in the third decade of the twenty-first century. The paper begins by outlining selected definitions, foundational theories and conceptual frameworks underpinning this analysis of the undergraduate curriculum and its influences. Three key external forces shaping the undergraduate curriculum are examined: universalization; national policy and legislative frameworks; and the influence of technology as disruptor and enabler. While some of these socio-political, economic and geopolitical forces are longstanding and familiar, a number of influential factors that have gained prominence in the last 10 years, including the disruptive influence of technology, new approaches to curriculum design in the form of micro-credentialing, and changing expectations of the undergraduate curriculum. The paper calls for a conceptually robust, long-term approach to examining the various factors shaping the undergraduate curriculum, with a particular focus on macro-level factors external to an institution. The paper concludes by considering policy and practical implications of these forces for the future shape and purpose of undergraduate curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide an introduction to the special issue on Teaching Inquiry, through its motivation and themes, focusing here on Part II: Implementing Inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Suellen Shay's work on higher education curricula foregrounds the importance of professional curricula which face inwards to disciplines and outwards to practice. This paper builds on her framing of professional curricula, distinctive in the differentiated knowledge base and the social relations which legitimate them. I extend Shay's work deeper into the internal governance structures underpinning curriculum decisions in engineering. Two dimensions of governance are explored: central control from the Faculty of Engineering over its departments; and the authority of individuals in department-level curriculum and accreditation roles over their colleagues. The empirical focus is on curricula reform towards 'graduate attributes' in engineering education, through a comparative study of eight universities in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Singapore, and Australia. The findings show that research-intensive universities are shielded from the full implications of accreditation requirements, while teaching-intensive universities are more likely to invest in developing the governance processes and systems demanded by professional bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context-based learning (CBL) has influenced teaching and learning science in many countries over the past decades. Twelve years ago, a special issue on CBL was published in this Journal, focusing on CBL curriculum development. Seven papers in this current special issue on CBL now address the question of how a context influences the learning process. The papers focus on the stimulation of learning STEM subjects within contexts, how the learning process occurs and is enhanced, and the application of contexts in different settings. The approaches, results, and implications of the papers are located in a larger view that considers the question of what must be the case if a student not only engages in the tasks of learning but also succeeds at them. Concerning willingness and effort by learners, the papers draw conclusions about which STEM-related interests of students endure and are ephemeral across a decade, design criteria for maximising students’ situational interest, and students’ engagement with content and context simultaneously. Focusing on the opportunity to teach and learn, the papers reveal how a professional development approach functions to support STEM teachers to develop CBL materials, and how specific scaffolding acts in teaching bring students to more complex reasoning. Regarding good teaching, insights are offered on how metacognitive prompts improve teaching. Centring on the social surround that supports teaching and learning, a comparison of two contexts for teaching the same content reveals which aspects of the contexts move student learning forward. From this mapping, paths toward future research are projected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This policy study examines how policymakers and policy experts in Norway made us of research and studies - produced in Norway, in the Nordic countries and outside the Nordic region - to explain the 2020 incremental school reform. In total, 2 White Papers, 12 Green Papers and 3438 texts, cited in the White and Green Papers, were used as data for the text-based social network analysis. The three major findings were the following: First, the policymakers and experts make excessive use of references (on average, 246 references per White or Green Paper). The publications they cite are highly specialized and issue centred with little overlap between the various papers. Second, the policy references for the 2020 reform were mainly domestic. Approximately 70% of the referenced texts were published in Norway. Finally, the social network analysis enabled the authors to identify five texts that were influential and that bridged curriculum with quality monitoring reform topics. The authors suggest that more attention should be paid to an analysis of incremental reforms such as the 2020 reform in Norway. They identify a few of the blind spots that the more commonly used focus on fundamental reforms tends to produce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their efforts to dissuade Africans from engaging fruitfully on matters of design, including design anthropology, colonialists dismissed the indigenes as only capable of designing witchcraft and sorcery for which they were sadly famed in colonial anthropology. Arguing that twenty-first century African universities need to include design anthropology in the curriculum, this paper contends that the future of anthropology, and of Africa, lies in design as is evident in discourses and practices on designer babies, designer humanoid sex robots, industrial robots, designer robotic spouses, synthetic biology, Artificial Intelligence, human enhancements, nanofabrication, biohacking, gene and genome editing, reverse engineering and rewiring humans, gene and genome deletion, social designs and so on. Drawing on autoethnography and extensive literature review, the paper argues that design anthropology is increasingly becoming relevant in a world that is rethinking modernist designs which are at the core of the Anthropocene. Put differently, design anthropology enables [African] graduates to engage with contemporary, empirical issues of design in a twenty-first-century world where the discipline can only survive by shifting focus from an obsession with sterile discourses about, inter alia, the past and present of African witchcraft, culture, society and sorcery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores relationships and sexuality education (RSE) in New Zealand secondary schools. After conducting a nationwide survey of teachers and producing a report on the challenges reported by RSE teachers, we began to develop a paper exploring the perennial issues faced by RSE teachers as they enact curriculum policy. Given that these issues endure, we considered how else we could approach the paper: in particular, what different questions could we ask of our data; and what alternative analytics offer potential for thinking in new ways about the perennial issues, and move us beyond telling the same old story? Asking these questions led us to Bacchi’s What’s the problem represented to be? (approach to policy analysis. Using data from our survey to focus our attention on key issues for teachers, we work with extracts from national government guidance for schools and teachers on RSE to apply this approach. Under five headings developed through the data analysis, we present five ‘provocations’ – or deliberately provocative proposals for the future of RSE in New Zealand. We hope the ideas in this paper may spark different ways of thinking about RSE policy and practice, with the ultimate aim of delivering meaningful and responsive RSE in secondary schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many changes have taken place in initial teacher education (ITE) programmes over the last number of years in countries such as Israel, Portugal, Jamaica, Ontario (Canada), and England. This paper outlines some of these changes, why they occurred, and to the extent possible, how effective these changes have been from the experience of the teacher educators who have written this paper. In particular, they describe one significant change that would greatly improve ITE in their respective jurisdictions. In the latter part of the paper, the writers discuss current trends and possible directions for teacher education across international contexts. With its contrasting accounts of ITE in different national contexts across the world, this article argues for high quality initial teacher education to provide a global educational workforce in which teachers and learners can flourish within an equal, yet diverse and decolonialised ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines how digital technologies support innovation in teaching and learning the English language across Palestinian Higher Education Institutes. A European project collaborated to build staff capacity in knowledge and skills, shown here through the redesign of curricula, pedagogical training, the design and implementation of interactive textbooks, the creation of language labs, helping to develop expertise in creating and utilising Open Educational Resources (OER) and significantly, the development of individual agency as a form of OER. In this paper, we draw on three years of data to present a model for teacher innovation showing how digital innovation is firstly personal at a practitioner level and shaped by need, before becoming driven by collaboration at an organisational level with like-minded colleagues. Shared practice at this level can lead to community discourse through practitioner networks, which in turn can lead to dialogue initiating instances of organisational change. This resonates with literature which shows innovation has three outcomes: originality (practitioner-based agency); scale (going beyond the site of creation) and value (how this produces benefits for others). We perceive that the resulting capacity-building extends beyond the redesign of curricula mentioned to professional enrichment, collegiality through cascading innovation to other areas, and enhanced practitioner agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching Odissi in the university space is not new to me. However, as a dancer-scholar located in India, teaching this dance form in a university in the United States expanded and deepened my understanding of this dance form and the ways it can be taught. This encounter, a collision of cultures, beliefs, and movement practices in the dance studio, engendered a pedagogical process that revealed itself as I taught this class over two semesters. The design of the class discussed in this article emerged from an intersection of my own training in Odissi with my guru and the institutional requirements of the program. This paper unpacks my pedagogical process of creating a syllabus, adopting teaching strategies, and assessing student work for negotiating the cultural chasm between me and my students, hoping to generate a sense of critical questioning, mutual curiosity, and respect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how students participating in a co-curricular scholarship programme in a large Australian university develop their employability. It seeks to add to recent literature regarding different approaches to graduate employability through examining how participating students' capital acquisition is shaped by and internalised within the structure and culture of the scholarship. The paper also offers an example of how comprehensive and integrated co-curricular scholarship programmes can facilitate graduate employability. It suggests that despite curricular intentions to promote comprehensive and processual approaches to employability, students' employability internalisations are influenced by possessive and positional messages and cultural cues within the scholarship programme. These insights serve as important considerations for higher education institutions seeking to instigate or improve their employability curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of digital technologies has frequently been hailed as a 'game-changer' in education. However, like previous technological innovations, such as television, these recent developments have failed thus far to demonstrate any significant large-scale improvement in the quality of educational provision or in educational outcomes. The papers in this special issue suggest that there is potential to change this scenario. Digital platforms such as Binogi have been able to exploit technological advances such as vastly improved crosslinguistic machine translation ushered in by artificial intelligence to make curriculum content much more accessible to multilingual students. Drawing on the papers in this special issue, I highlight three dimensions of digital learning environments that have demonstrated pedagogical credibility to enhance multilingual learners' development of literacy and their acquisition of academic content in the target language: (a) they provide extensive access to and promote engagement with written (and oral) input in the target language, (b) they provide instructional scaffolds within the digital environment to promote both awareness of how language works and intentional learning of academic concepts and subject matter content, and (c) they encourage and enable students to become autonomous learners who are capable of self-regulating and evaluating their own learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asian migrant students are typically considered as educational paragons in the West. They have been shown to surpass other students in standard indicators of educational success. However, viewing this success with a purely ethnic framework is inadequate and essentialising. It conflates the experiences of various groups into a homogenised 'Asian' category and ignores the crucial role played by other properties and processes, such as social class and engagement with hierarchical education systems. This paper incorporates these multiple dimensions to provide a fuller account of 'Asian' success. Using large scale longitudinal survey data from Australia, we demonstrate the internal differences in the educational outcomes of Asian groups, and outline the stratifying role played by parental cultural capital. Most importantly, we show how unequal engagement with schools and the curriculum produces unequal outcomes. This intersectional approach enables a more theoretically integrated understanding of the factors that produce educational inequality in diverse societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the symbolism of what we consider to be a ‘Sisyphean continuum’, in this paper the Anglosphere countries of Canada, New Zealand, the United States, and Australia are grouped to strategically reveal the shared challenges Indigenous peoples encounter in racial-colonial education systems. Fittingly, parallels are drawn between the punitive loop the mythical figure Sisyphus was doomed to. For Indigenous peoples bound up in dominant educational spaces, the barrage of racial-colonial institutional tools and mechanisms, enduring racism and cultural assimilation, the absence of collective achievement, the lack of Indigenous representation (e.g. personnel or knowledge), in parallel with sustained inter-generational advocacy, aptly mirrors the exhaustive punitive loop of Sisyphus. Guided by theoretical bridges synergising Indigenous and Western qualitative research techniques, three commonly repeated challenges (1. Deficit thinking; 2. Institutions; 3. Curriculum) are the focus of this paper. These themes are drawn from a broader study that sought the wisdom of sixteen Indigenous experts from across the Anglosphere. Our paper’s findings recentre the cycling educational challenges Indigenous peoples encounter and draw attention to the urgent need to turn towards and embrace marginalised voices and knowledge paradigms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing civic competence among learners is the business of any social studies teacher. The overall success of any social studies teaching depends, in great measure, on the ability of teachers to approach controversial public issues (CPI) in the spirit of critical inquiry. However, previous studies suggest that the teaching of CPI is affected by teachers' pedagogical deficits, students' reluctance during discussions, and lack of emphasis on CPI in the curriculum. Hence, this paper purports to locate the preferred positionality, reasons, and practices in teaching CPI of a select group of Filipino social studies teachers (n = 379) in basic education. Using a multi-aspect questionnaire, results showed that teachers are leaning towards a committed impartiality position, and are driven by the desire to develop learners to be critical, reflective, and action-oriented as they engage in meaningful conversations about important social issues. Moreover, teachers' perceived instructional practice is an intersection of empowering, democratising, and conflicting moves, Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports on a study that was conducted to explain the state of Curriculum Studies in Zimbabwe from 2004 to 2014. Data were collected from 51 articles published in three local education journals and semi-structured interviews with 18 authors selected through convenient, purposive and stratified sampling, across three academic staff categories of professor, senior lecturer and lecturer. Issues focused on in the articles, the manner in which they are discussed and the authors' views on these aspects were studied. The concept of knowledge democracy was employed to explore how the articles contributed to the field of Curriculum Studies. The findings highlight how authors attempted to strike a balance between the use of international theories and local discourses. We argue that the perspectives used by the authors should be understood as being both survivalist and tactical. Significant shifts from, for example, Western theories and discourses mainly indicated the influence of the post-independence politics and educational ideals within Zimbabwe. The paper concludes that writing about indigenous knowledge, alongside other contextual and cultural issues points to possibilities for the realisation of knowledge democracy in the field of Curriculum Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the technologisation of the pedagogical space "classroom". We will discuss the development and establishment of the subject-specific classroom system in the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany, 1949–1989) by taking a closer look at organisational-structural conditions and responsibilities, as well as at the functioning and challenges that emerged during the implementation of subject classrooms. The furnishing of the subject classroom with seating, desks, teaching and learning objects including technical equipment, and storage furniture was planned down to the last detail and aligned to the requirements of the curriculum. We will concentrate on the classrooms for Physics and Music to highlight the peculiarities of this principle of school spatial organisation and its impact on social school practice. Our paper will focus on the political agenda and regulations, by drawing on sources from state-led research programmes. The article uses the concept of the classroom dispositif as a description of the programmatic claims. Thus, the subject-specific classroom could be considered as a technically shaped apparatus whose architectural structure determines pedagogical practices in their spatial, temporal, social, institutional, and technical dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Teaching in Higher Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Troubling longstanding histories of teaching elementary school with an asexual approach for fear of children losing their innocence, this paper argues that schools and teacher preparation programs should be explicit about the inclusion of LGBTQ + voices and perspectives from early childhood forward. Using a narrative inquiry study that foreground the experiences of a 19-year-old college student reflecting on queer-bias at an early age and the exhaustion he endured from various forms of exclusion, the implications for this paper are significant in that they consider not only how curriculum studies should be central to all teacher preparation but also how elementary curricula should be queered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of AI and robots in library and information science is garnering attention due to early applications and their potential to contribute to the digital transformation of the information professions. This paper assesses the challenges and opportunities for LIS education in these topics. To achieve this aim, this paper reviews the curriculum, through subject descriptions, of five ALIA accredited LIS courses in Australia and the ALIA foundation knowledge documentation. Content analysis is employed to identify and assess the framing of AI, robotics and related themes in the documentation. Findings indicate only one subject mentions AI to position subject content and none mention robotics. An analysis of the framing of related themes, such as digital technology, data, and information ethics, is discussed. Findings also indicate multiple areas for the inclusion of these topics within the five categories of the ALIA foundation knowledge, while allowing for differentiation among programmatic and institutional foci. This paper argues that a form of integration of these topics in LIS professional education will be necessary in order to meet future skills needs. This paper concludes with opportunities for LIS education in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first reviews the roles, concepts and practices within SBBD. The paper continues with two single case studies and a survey on the three main phases used in the Netherlands to aid educational institutes in developing a play-based curriculum. In the first case educational professionals (EPs) recognise that the play-based approach helped them learn about, experience and understand the implications and effects of SBBD while making a transition from a fixed, programmed approach of reading to a play-based approach of literacy. In the research on the second case, EPs mention that their development in practice has improved during the implementation phase. The reasons and the main bottlenecks are mentioned. The final case elaborates on hypothetical learning processes by writing learning stories. This case shows how this is an important tool for EPs and also a way to involve the child's parents and caregivers in the learning community. The paper illustrates how SBBD trainers use play but also enact in a playful way when working with the EPs wanting to implement a play-based curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a world facing climate crisis, a growing divide between rich and poor, racial strife, and a rise of xenophobic populism, social studies educators are obligated to investigate social issues in ways that might lead toward more just, less-destructive futures. This paper theorizes a new materialist social studies curriculum—a curriculum attentive to matter, nonhuman species, and anthropocentric representations of nature and the environment—with the aim of uncovering alternative inquiries and responsibilities that might help us flourish as teachers, students, and citizens. Throughout this paper, we argue that a new materialist lens can reconfigure and enliven social studies curriculum, and our corresponding analysis centers on particular events and concepts in the Michigan K-12 Social Studies Standards, considering how prevalent, normative representations reify damaging ways of being and knowing. This paper contributes to ongoing discourses regarding the boundaries, topics, and events that ought to comprise social studies curriculum, and we conclude by speculating new ethical futures for our field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally climate change (CC) is scarcely addressed in school curricula, and school graduates are mostly uneducated about climate change. The purpose of this paper is to make a case for conceptualising CC as a discipline, and to further argue why CC should be included in school curricula as a disciplinary-subject. An initial examination of CC in curricula globally reveals that the main approach for including CC in the curriculum is the cross-curriculum approach. The problems associated with this approach are discussed in regard to the challenges posed to the integrity of the CC body of knowledge, and to the teaching and learning. The paper continues to build a case for conceptualising CC as a discipline in its own right. It explains the notions of: disciplines, subjects, and disciplinary-subjects. Further, it describes the disciplinary characteristics of CC, and the benefits of including CC in the curriculum as a disciplinary-subject. However, curricular resistance issues are identified and discussed. These resistances are addressed by considering evidence derived from curriculum theory, cognitive psychology and philosophy of science for supporting the inclusion of a CC disciplinary-subject. Finally, the challenges in establishing a CC disciplinary-subject are discussed. The paper concludes by considering implications for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As quintessential knowledge organisations, universities need to constantly foster knowledge sharing between their students to enable their academic success and employability. This paper draws on a range of relevant literature to proposes the categorisation of the diverse knowledge-sharing activities undertaken by students in university environments along three dimensions: relatedness to curriculum, distance between students and degree of formality. Broader factors that feed into these dimensions such as the advent of online learning, the widespread integration of social media into learning, the effects of national culture and individual student characteristics on knowledge sharing and the move towards the formalisation of peer learning among students are explored in relation to each of these dimensions. Through the use of several practical examples, the paper demonstrates how these dimensions can act as a planning tool that can help university staff develop, revise and compare student-to-student knowledge-sharing activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author of this article describes an intermediate economics course structured around outside readings, which include academic journal papers, policy briefs, and news articles. Students complete low-stakes, high-frequency writing assignments that promote accountability and encourage critical thinking about the readings. This pairing of outside readings and writing assignments leads to increased student engagement, high rates of self-reported reading, and high satisfaction with the course without imposing an unreasonable grading workload on the instructor. This model may be especially useful to instructors in intermediate and advanced courses who seek to increase students' exposure to recent developments in their field and strengthen their ability to engage critically with economic theory and ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on the role of practice in doctoral degrees considering the purpose of doctoral education. Topics include provider of doctoral education and universities having the main influence on doctoral curricula and pedagogy; covering knowledge, policy, and practice in the area of ‘practice in doctoral degrees' covering a range of countries and in different forms of doctorate and discipline.

Teachers matter. They make a difference in the life of the individual and the society at large. Hence, their education and training has always been at the centre of any government's education policy. This paper focuses on teacher education in Albania. The narrative describes and analyzes the main milestones in teacher education during the four historical periods of Albania: the National Awakening, Independence, Totalitarianism and Post-totalitarianism. The main thrust of the paper is to examine how the historical, political and socio-cultural factors interrelate to influence on teacher education and pedagogy at certain points in time of Albania's history. The paper reveals the way the western educational ideas that emerged and evolved during the pre World War II period were suppressed during totalitarianism, but were reasserted when Albania transitioned to democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports results from a quantitative curriculum study on literature modules in Austrian undergraduate teacher education programmes. In order to optimise course delivery in literature classes at the University College of Education Upper Austria (PHOÖ), reading habits and attitudes of 153 first-year EFL students for secondary school education were assessed in an online-questionnaire. The questionnaire examined students' exposure to literary texts, their self-assessment as avid readers, their performative literacy, and their preferred reading stance. Results show rather limited avid reading, a self-centred performative literacy as well as a profoundly pragmatic reading stance. Such habits and attitudes could not only jeopardise success within the current teacher education study programmes but also aggravate the well-known Peter Effect, rendering prospective EFL teachers incapable of inspiring enthusiasm for literary reading in their future students. After discussing these results, the paper concludes with potential ramifications for curricular revisions as well as avenues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child well-being is regarded as an important part of early childhood education but little is known about the meaning of well-being and how it is operationalised in a curriculum context. The paper examines how practitioners in Wales assess the well-being of 3- to 7-year-olds. The case study involves two schools and the paper discusses findings from six focus groups and fourteen interviews. Practitioners are uncertain about how to assess child well-being and therefore draw upon what they do in other subject areas and use criterion-referenced assessment. Practitioners also report various difficulties in assessing well-being which suggests that placing well-being in curriculum policy is problematic. Findings indicate that well-being is understood as an abstract concept where practitioners attempt to transform it into a concrete form in order to assess it. Questions linking to rationale, concept, enactment and assessment need to be discussed when considering well-being as a subject area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketization is the development of quasi-markets on the systemic level, which promote choice, competition, accountability, and devolution in public schooling. Marketing is a strategy that individual school leaders employ to respond to these logics. This paper argues that education marketization has led to an increase in school-based marketing within the Australian public school system. The eight public school principals we report on here, perceived marketing as a key technique in shaping school choice but paradoxically, felt that they shouldn't have to market to prospective families. In addition, some participants no longer felt like they operated as public schools, but rather, existed somewhere in the "grey zone" between public and private. We use Bateson's concept of the double bind to argue that marketization is creating a system of performative pressures for public school principals that contradict with their ethical values and beliefs. This double bind is not representative of a simple contradiction of individual conflict, but of school leaders caught up in an ongoing system of marketization that produces conflicting definitions of "publicness" and understanding of what public schools are and ought to be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a detailed introduction to the structures and practice of ideological and political education in Chinese universities. It draws on a thematic analysis of documents from the Chinese Communist Party and State sources, and data from 24 in-depth interviews with managers of ideological and political education, teaching staff, student counsellors and students from three universities. This paper shows how ideological and political education in Chinese universities has developed into an institutionalized system. It reveals how the practices of ideological and political education institutionalize patriotism as appropriate ideological perspectives for students. It offers empirical evidence of the party-led structures, formal teaching and varied activities that together make up ideological and political education in Chinese universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the last five decades, the development of "Asia-literate" students has been a key objective in Australian education policy. The contentions surrounding this educational goal have been well documented by academic literatures, policy documents and media commentary. This paper seeks to redress the absence of student voices in these debates by examining students' experiences with Asia-related curriculum in the context of Languages and History teaching and learning in secondary schools in Victoria, Australia. Engaging the lens of curriculum inquiry, we use select thematic episodes from qualitative interview data to interrogate students' understanding and evaluation of planned and experienced Asia-related curriculum. Their stories highlight the incongruences of Asia learning as framed by (and within) formal sites of learning, and students' lived experiences in other spaces. We argue that in order to effect a shift in the current expressions of Asia-related curriculum policy towards a more student-centred articulation, students' roles in shaping curricular knowledge warrant more attention and scrutiny. As our analysis suggests, a deeper understanding of students' experiences of curriculum-as-lived may be the catalyst for a long-overdue reorientation towards a curricular landscape of multiplicity, where new and authentic possibilities for Asia learning could be envisaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the pedagogic lens this article presents theoretical exposition of feminist egalitarian discourse for social work education. The Masters in Social Work is a professional qualification, which has as its primary goal the promotion of human rights and social justice. In theory, feminist egalitarian discourse aligns succinctly with this overall goal. However, in reality feminist egalitarian discourse is often overlooked and is rarely considered mainstream in many social work programmes. The paper is divided into three sections (1) An Irish context, which provides a brief overview of social work in Ireland, while linking it to the way social work programmes have developed within such a context; (2) The status of feminist egalitarian discourse in social work education, whereby critical theorisation in this paper interrogates the literature on feminist egalitarian discourse in social work education (particularly Masters in Social Work curricula), and in doing so, and; (3) Embraces feminist egalitarian discourse in social work education, which highlights the significance of critical perspectives in contemporary social work education and practice. Theorisation through uptake of feminist egalitarian discourse argues that through such discourse in social work masters programmes, coherence with universal humanistic ideology is heightened, challenging both neoliberal ideologies and statutory led practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we provide a descriptive comparison of the similarities and differences between social work education at six different universities situated in Australia, England, Finland, Northern Ireland, Sweden, and the United States. The aim was to begin an international conversation by examining the similarities and differences in these examples, around admissions and recruitment processes, professional training, and field practicum to prepare social work students for practice and to consider any implications that differing models of recruitment and training might have for the students' preparedness for the challenges of social work. The findings reflect common characteristics relating to the curriculum, such as skills training, reflective practice and application of theory into practice. Differences include a range of approaches to professional regulation, admissions and selection, duration of courses and practicum during training. The complexities of trying to measure similarities and differences across diverse models of education are recognised, including the difficulties stemming from different factors being relevant in diverse geographic regions across diverse contexts. The authors suggest that starting an international discussion allows us to learn from one another and may serve as a catalyst for future progress in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important sector of animal-based tourism is wildlife tourism, which includes a diverse base of attractions in captive, semi-captive and wild settings. We argue that actors (tourists, tourism operators, and academics) must have the prerequisite knowledge of animal welfare to assess animals' conditions in tourism settings. To this end, this paper has two aims. The first is to develop an animal welfare syllabus that should be used to teach students in higher learning institutions (who may ultimately work at animal attractions upon their graduation) as well as operators. The second aim is to mesh the papers in this special edition as case studies within the syllabus in making a case for an enhanced animal welfare educational tool for wildlife tourism. While the animal welfare syllabus is constructed for all animals used in tourism, we apply it specifically to the wildlife tourism sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluency Assessment and Benchmarking for Literacy in Education (FABLe) is the first mobile application being developed for the assessment of foundational literacy skills in India. FABLe passages are currently available in English for Grades 2, 3 and 4, with plans to expand to other Indian languages. FABLe is designed to administer curriculum-based measures for reading (R-CBMs) that have been validated in the Indian context. This paper describes the preliminary benchmarking procedures being undertaken for the Indian student population and how FABLe screens for students at-risk for reading difficulties. Student performance data based on initial FABLe results are compared with international benchmarks and teacher perception data. Overall, FABLe scores are lower than international benchmarks. FABLe was able to accurately identify students needing additional support, with the majority of students identified at-risk falling below the 19th percentile in FABLe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To support a paradigm shift for 21st century learning, teacher design work is emphasized by conceptualizing teachers as designers. Despite the fact that teaching is increasingly referred to as a design science, both teacher educators and curriculum developers know little about how to enhance teacher design work in technology-enhanced learning environments. Further, teachers' design knowledge, design experience and supports available to them are not articulated in a systematic manner. Purpose & Method: To address these issues, this study reports a systematic review of the literature on the design work of teachers within technology-enhanced learning environments, in STEM domains. In this review, there are four main themes: the context where teachers' design work takes place, the form that the design work took, the aspect/phase of design process that the paper focuses on, and details of any supports that assist teachers in the work of design. Findings: Teacher design work takes place in a variety of contexts, and teacher design work also takes many forms. Research that reports on design work tends to focus on the implementation and evaluation components of the design process. Teachers have access to a variety of supports, including design materials and design frameworks. Conclusions: This synthesis identifies future areas of research in supporting STEM teachers' design knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the education of library (MLS) graduate students in courses of library management or in special topic courses in project management in libraries and information centers. To examine the specific skill of project management, a method was employed allowing students to set deadlines as a form of self-directed learning. The student-created syllabi milestones were piloted to search for a match between student abilities and development of project management processes upon degree completion. The use of a proposed and piloted technique was implemented here through a tool named the Personal Course Plan (PCP). It was designed to assist students in learning the value of setting personal schedules for their enrolled graduate course, much as a library project manager would use in practice in libraries. Personal Course Plans (PCPs) were effectively developed by students and allowed the ability to self-monitor their performance on completing project deliverables, meeting expectations of supervisors, and judging their own performance. As the experience was a positive one for both the instructor and students, this article provides not only an operational examination, but also proposes theoretical justification for using such a teaching method in library and information science education. Described are details LIS faculty should consider in implementing the method in teaching and gives future library employers of LIS program graduates a sense of what project management skills recent graduates are receiving. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this paper is to present a schema that maps the terrain of intercultural assessment strategies. This schema is based upon Haraway's semiotic square and has two dimensions. The first considers how distant or near the cultural Other is understood to be – whether they are perceived a stranger or a neighbour. The second considers whether the student is encouraged to see the cultural Other as an object about whom one learns facts, or if student and the cultural Other are expected to interact as a means to transforming their mutually interrelated lives. We argue that this mapping helps illuminate the benefits and shortcomings of various assessment strategies, highlighting the underlying curricular assumptions and objectives of these assessment strategies. This paper argues that curricular and assessment models that treat cultural Others as neighbours engaged in joint transformative change should increasingly be the focus of intercultural learning and assessment strategies. A review of extant literature found that school systems, international and transnational curriculum bodies, and some for-profit companies provide a wide range of models for assessing student intercultural awareness, understanding and componence. These models differ so significantly that the term "intercultural" may appear a floating signifier. However, the benefit of our schema is in classifying these models by focusing on the forms of intercultural interactions they anticipate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how young people, considered as 'fall-away', engage with the 'curriculum complex', a set of relations of adult expert communities, transnational and international corporate and educational organisations, and legislations and policies, aimed at managing and containing the 'wild' student through the employment of correctional practices. This paper examines young people's engagement with the curriculum complex through two inquiries: one in the U.S. Midwest; and another in the northern Philippines. By using vignettes and student conversations from these inquiries, this paper first asks how the curriculum complex figures in classrooms; second, how students respond to it through their bold, playful, and engaged classroom and school curriculum performances; and lastly, how young people through their acts of guileful ruse, widen the curricular opening, and at the same time, expose its illogic and mastery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As study abroad opportunities increase, so too are international teaching exchanges. This article describes the collaborative teaching experience of a course which was jointly developed and offered for Bachelors and Masters level social work students. The course aimed to explore the integration of Eastern and Western cultural understandings and approaches to promote health and wellbeing by examining the mind, body, and spiritual connections and exploring the integration of strategies for health and mental health systems. This paper outlines the process involved in developing and delivering a course which complies with both the curriculum standards of two institutions, and the professional accreditation standards by CSWE across international contexts. Evaluation of the student work through the use of a rigorous qualitative methodological approach demonstrates that the course was useful for the participants and at the same time, the experience was valuable for the authors. The student work reflected two central themes: First is a growing appreciation for the importance of a cultural humility perspective with special attention to an international perspective. Second, directly related to the course content which focused on the integration of Eastern and Western approaches to addressing mental health challenges as a social worker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the collaborative process between the authors in adapting course assignments in undergraduate music history courses to demonstrate actual learning of content and information literacy skills. Although the inclusion of the information literacy standards is an important step in developing critical thinking skills, other factors impede students to perform well such as lack of knowledge on how to structure a research paper or not understanding how to properly cite the information. By monitoring student performance, the faculty and instruction librarian can make changes to improve student learning and the acquisition of critical thinking skills. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although the correlation between technology and the changing labor landscape has been the subject of much research, there are growing concerns regarding the rise of automation and its impact on the job market. Research focus has been on jobs that are most likely to be affected by automation in the era of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). Very little, if any research has examined universities' readiness to meet the current and future 4IR curriculum demand needs, and their capabilities to produce graduates or skill sets that support the current and future labor market and technology changes. This insight paper explores South African universities' 4IR readiness against the backdrop of general industry 4IR adoption. An interpretive interview with three leading 4IR education training and industrial automation company directors offers insight into industry 4IR adoption in Africa, as seen against the available skills sets and/or labor force readiness. This paper has implications for curriculum redesign and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper begins with a broader discussion of the current efforts to address the gap in integrating the topic of climate change across university curricula. This context informs the study’s primary objective of evaluating the efficacy of a two-phase faculty learning community (FLC) and student climate literacy assessment model, designed and implemented as an exploratory case study at an American Midwestern university, in promoting (1) climate change pedagogy and (2) climate change literacy and engagement among students. Methods include: surveys of the FLC to assess how well it prepares faculty to add or revise climate change coverage in their courses, climate literacy and engagement tests of students in these courses, and faculty debrief reports at the conclusion of course revision implementation. Faculty surveys indicated appreciation of interdisciplinary dialogue and collaborative learning, though debrief reports highlighted a need for additional training on climate change and guidance in assignment design and assessment. Climate literacy and engagement surveys demonstrate improved scores among the student population in the assessed areas, and growth in levels of student engagement with the topic. The paper offers suggestions to address FLC time constraints and the reliability of the climate literacy results for those considering employing this model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent evaluation paper of the London General Practitioner Trainer Course by Knight et al questions the importance of educational theory in preparing GPs to become trainers and asks 'how much educational theory do GP trainers need to know in order to train effectively?' This paper places the authors' question under consideration, arguing that before the relationship between the theory and practice of education can be considered, the nature of 'educational practice' needs examination. There then follows a discussion of the work of Della Fish which presents two conceptualisations of educational practice in the context of postgraduate medical education in order to shed light on the different inferences contrasting epistemological and ontological conceptions can have, and the implications for curricula. This discussion is illustrated by offering the reader connections to papers in the field as evidence. At the heart of the paper is a conclusion that curriculum development and enquiry need to be sensitive to epistemological and ontological positionality as well as experiences and perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intercultural education in Australia has been positioned in Statebased official curriculum and education policy as developing understanding between diverse cultural groups. However, cultivating such understanding far more complex in practice than policy and curriculum directives can capture. In Australia, eruptions of intercultural tensions has an ongoing and complex history. This paper examines the challenges for teachers' intercultural practice in one Australian public school setting. Reporting on a single-site ethnography drawing on Lefebvre's production of space. I conceptualise teachers' intercultural work as a praxis of difference, this paper problematises the way intercultural education is often taken up in tokenistic ways and advocates for reimagining intercultural education as a challenge of practice. I argue that an examination of the conditions that produce complex relations between diverse cultural groups in particular spaces is a productive starting point for developing intercultural understanding as a rational praxis of difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper presents a counter-narrative to the long-held belief that Physical Education (PE) is impermeable to change. Transforming and enacting curriculum is incredibly challenging and sometimes impossible but if teachers have particular resources available to them over time, this makes 'radical reform more, rather than less likely' [Kirk, D. 2009. Physical Education Futures. London: Routledge]. Purpose: This paper addresses the on-going and pervasive issue of sustainable curriculum transformation and enactment in PE. More specifically, the purpose of this research is to examine the source, nature and purpose of resources that made curriculum transformation and enactment possible in one school. Data collection and analysis: As part of an exemplary case study, 7 Secondary PE teachers and one Principal from an Australian Secondary school engaged in the process of curriculum transformation and enactment. Data consisted of semi-structured individuals (3) and paired interviews (6) and field notes. We drew upon the notion of 'contextual dimensions' and 'activity layers' to support the analysis. Findings suggest that the teachers were supported by resources that spanned different contextual dimensions (situated, material, external contexts and professional culture) and layers of activity. The most valued resources identified by the teachers were (i) structural and networked support; (ii) sustained leadership; (iii) a clear vision for PE in their school; (iv) professional learning; (v) time. Conclusion: The findings suggest that while changes in policy do not necessarily prompt change in practice, particular kinds of policy are necessary if the change is to be viewed as possible and worthwhile by teachers. In this study, a layered policy landscape acted as a catalyst for the teachers to reimagine what PE could look like in their school. Moving from vision to action, it was the interplay of resources across the contextual dimensions and activity layers that the teachers drew on to support curriculum transformation and enactment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]