Studies the intersections of curriculum politics and policy-making throughout the world.

This book explores how curriculum reform is interconnected with policy, practice and society. Curriculum reform is increasingly associated with efforts to better the lives of citizens and provide a competitive edge to national prosperity. Educational policy and practice have been the subject of unprecedented convergence worldwide in the quest for so-called 21st century skills. This book offers a case study of curriculum reform within the Republic of Ireland, focusing on antecedents, processes and outcomes of government efforts to evoke fundamental curriculum realignment at lower secondary level. Set against a backdrop of fluctuating economic fortunes and concerns about academic standards and educational equity, this volume has wider relevance beyond Ireland for any system undertaking education reform at scale.

Offering a range of studies on the intersections of curriculum politics, policy, and/or practice, this book addresses the following questions: Who decides what is taught in K-12 schools? On what basis? What actually happens in classroom practice? What do students have opportunities to learn? Who benefits from these decisions and practices? It includes case studies that span school levels, subject areas, and national boundaries, thus enriching the possibilities for cross-case analysis, interpretation, and insight. Curriculum dynamics are revealed in cases ranging from the macro—as in the case from South Africa—to the micro—as in the case of U.S. special education placement. Instances of curriculum politics, policy, and/or practice are brought to life and situated in their contemporary and historical contexts with particular attention to questions of knowledge control and distribution of benefits. Included is this uniquely comparative text are several American case studies, including a discussion of implications of "science for all," the politics and consequences of placing a significantly disabled student in a separate classroom after several years of inclusion, trying to embrace multicultural literature without dealing with racism close to home, and history-social studies curriculum policy intended as cultural containment. Also examined are the business-education culture clash in creating meaningful technology education in Canada, the politics of mandating "religious knowledge" curricula in Singapore, white South African students negotiating divergent stories of their country's past and present while trying to make sense of their own roles and future, and critical analysis of British educational discourses of social justice and their impact in the 1940s and 1990s. Contributors include Angela Calabrese-Brown, Nadine Dolby, Vivian Forssman, Diana Lawrence-Brown, Suzanne Miller, Margery Osborne, Jason Tan, Gina DeBlase Trzyna, Gaby Weiner, and John Willinsky.

In the context of profound social, political and technological changes, recent global trends in education have included the emergence of new forms of curriculum policy. Addressing a gap in the literature, this book investigates the ways in which curriculum policy is influenced, formulated, and enacted in a number of countries-cases in Europe.

′This book will be of interest to educational practitioners, and many other professionals concerned with the education and development of the young′ - ESCalate `A very well-respected book [and a] Curriculum classic...[which offers] balance to current official publications...One of its strengths is the coherent argument that runs throughout. It is very much a product of the wide knowledge and experience of the author.′ - Jenny Houssart, Senior Lecturer, Department of Learning, Curriculum & Communication, Institute of Education, University of London, UK Praise for previous editions: `I use this book as an essential course text for a module on curriculum theory. It is an excellent text for the whole course′ `Vic Kelly′s writing is always concise and informative, but also at times challenging′ `A most comprehensive text that takes the reader beyond content/balance issues values, beliefs and assumptions on the curriculum′ This is the sixth edition of a book that has been regularly revised and updated since it was first published in the mid-1970s. A V Kelly′s now classic work focuses on the philosophical and political dimensions of curriculum, and especially on the implications for schools and societies of various forms of curriculum. The book outlines what form a curriculum should take if it is concerned to promote a genuine form of education for a genuinely democratic society. Kelly summarises and explains the main aspects of curriculum theory, and shows how these can and should be translated into practice, in order to create an educational and democratic curriculum for all schools at all levels. The book also seeks to show that the politicization of the school curriculum has led to the establishment of policies and practices which demonstrate a failure to understand these principles of curriculum theory and practice. As a result, policies and practices have been implemented which fall short of being adequate. In view of the rapid pace of educational change imposed by various governments over the last 35 years, including New Labour, this book is more relevant than ever.

Using the example and context of Physical Education, a particularly vivid and comprehensive illustration is provided of the processes involved in the development of the National Curriculum for Physical Education in England and Wales between 1988-1995. The authors draw upon the extensive research to provide an analysis, description and critique of the direct and indirect influences of central government, local education authorities, schools, departments and teachers in the development of policy and practice in Physical Education. The highly political nature of policy developments in education, and Physical Education in particular, is demonstrated clearly throughout. A valuable contribution to existing literature, this book helps students and researchers piece together the last ten years of policy-making in education and offers a new perspective on the future of Physical Education in the United Kingdom.

"The essays in this collection offer a timely intervention in digital humanities scholarship, bringing together established and emerging scholars from a variety of humanities disciplines across the world. The first section offers views on the practical realities of teaching digital humanities at undergraduate and graduate levels, presenting case studies and snapshots of the authors' experiences alongside models for future courses and reflections on pedagogical successes and failures. The next section proposes strategies for teaching foundational digital humanities methods across a variety of scholarly disciplines, and the book concludes with wider debates about the place of digital humanities in the academy, from the field's cultural assumptions and social obligations to its political visions." (4e de couverture).