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This paper reports teacher and learner perspectives on how assessment and reform influences pedagogical practices and behaviours. The research was conducted in a context of policy reform, at a time when Wales' revised General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) specifications had been implemented, and learners were preparing for their assessments; but, also during the period of debate on the development of Wales' new curriculum, which has taken a distinct and contrasting position on assessment to the assumptions underlying the reform of Welsh GCSEs implemented from 2015. These data, therefore, offer unique insights into the affordances and limitations of two sharply contrasting systems at a time of considerable change, offering reflections on the current curriculum and its attendant assessment practices, and also a prospective analysis of how the principles embedded in the new curriculum could challenge these existing assumptions and conventions. Findings suggest that teachers and learners currently inhabit an assessment‐driven system, which encourages performative practices in pedagogy and is governed by external accountability; and that these practices are at odds with the principles of assessment articulated in Successful Futures. Consequently, teachers in this study expressed uncertainty about how assessment for certification purposes at GCSE could be compatible with the principles of the Curriculum for Wales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The place of evidence to inform educational effectiveness has received increasing attention internationally in the last two decades. An important contribution to evidence-informed policy has been greater attention to experimental trials including randomised controlled trials ( RCTs). The aim of this paper is to examine the use of evidence, particularly the use of evidence from experimental trials, to inform national curriculum policy. To do this the teaching of grammar to help pupils' writing was selected as a case. Two well-regarded and influential experimental trials that had a significant effect on policy, and that focused on the effectiveness of grammar teaching to support pupils' writing, are examined in detail. In addition to the analysis of their methodology, the nature of the two trials is also considered in relation to other key studies in the field of grammar teaching for writing and a recently published robust RCT. The paper shows a significant and persistent mismatch between national curriculum policy in England and the robust evidence that is available with regard to the teaching of writing. It is concluded that there is a need for better evidence-informed decisions by policy makers to ensure a national curriculum specification for writing that is more likely to have positive impact on pupils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 that is meaningful and relevant to their pupils. Strengthening teachers' agency in relation to pedagogy, however, can sometimes be difficult to achieve because, for example, of perceived issues around workload and accountability. There are many 'off‐the‐peg' or ready‐made solutions to the challenges of curriculum reform, and in many cases, schools are responding to such challenges using ready‐made or bespoke approaches. This paper explores the nature of the tensions between the drive to empower professional contributions to curriculum reform, and increase autonomy for teachers, and the existing professional practices. In particular, as an example of the tensions, the paper considers how and why one school selected a commercial mindfulness package to contribute to the newly defined Health and Wellbeing Area of Experience, and the implication of this choice on teacher autonomy and pedagogical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many explanations on how best policies could be implemented in different set-ups and how they have been developed and piloted by different scholars with interest in policy implementation. Most of these explanations focus on the processes from policy design to the resistance of those responsible for implementing policy in local jurisdictions such as schools and districts. These accounts rest on the assumptions that implementers understand policy's intensions and that failure is a function of poor interpretation of the policy messages. These has been challenged in the recent work in implementation research in that even when teachers and administrators heed high-level policies and work hard to effectively implement them, implementation failures still persist (Cohen and Hill 2002, 1-12). Ryder, Banner and Homer (2014, 126) contend that one reason given for this failure is that teachers do not understand the reform and the motivations behind its implementation. However, an approach to policy implementation failure exclusively as a result of poor interpretation of policy message or deliberate attempts to ignore or sabotage policy neglects the complexity of human sense-making processes which remain influential to policy implementation. This paper reviews and extends this growing body of knowledge on policy implementation literature that applies cognitive frames to the study of policy implementation. This paper seeks to understand policy implementation from a cognitive perspective whereby a key dimension of the implementation process is to develop an understanding on how and why grade 9 Natural Science teachers in the general and training sections of South African education system make sense and respond to the transformative and instructional policies that guide their teaching practices in ways they do. Again, the purpose is to analyze what encourages and discourages teachers to respond to the policies in those specific ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Welsh Curriculum sets itself apart from its predecessors through the use of explicit aims; these are the Four Purposes of the New Welsh Curriculum. At the same time, it sets out six Areas of Learning and Experience which incorporate traditional school subjects and emphasise the importance of providing a broad and balanced education. In this paper, I ask whether these two strands, the Four Purposes and the six Areas of Learning and Experience, can be united into a single coherent curriculum. I argue that if the curriculum is entirely driven by the Four Purposes, then much of the content associated with traditional school subjects in the Areas of Learning and Experience is redundant. On the contrary, if the Areas of Learning and Experience are prioritised, then the Four Purposes are unlikely to be met. In response, I propose that the content associated with Areas of Learning and Experience can be understood a prerequisite for meeting the Four Purposes, but the content is not sufficient on its own. This reconciles some of the tension between the two curriculum strands, but means that the Areas of Learning and Experience will need to be supplemented by additional activities in order for the New Welsh Curriculum to achieve its purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses of curricula in a range of countries show how they tend to reinforce, rather than challenge, popular theories of racism. To date, we know little about the contribution of physical education (PE) curriculum policy to the overall policy landscape. This paper examines the construction of race and racism in two national contexts (Norway and England) as a means of putting race and anti-racism on the PE policy research agenda. It adopts a critical whiteness perspective to analyse how whiteness, as a system of privilege, contributes to the racialisation of valued knowledge in PE and asks, who potentially benefits and/or is marginalised within the learning spaces available in the texts? The discourse analysis reveals that two discursive techniques of whiteness combine to privilege white, Eurocentric knowledge content. Unmarked white PE practices and students are constructed as universal, normative and contingent. As a result, non-white PE practices and students are positioned on the margins in contemporary policy texts. By revealing the racialisation processes evident in the texts, we aim to trouble the profession's taken-for-granted truths about race in PE as integral to working towards the development of an antiracist subject. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There has been a general outcry in South Africa that learners' reading ability has deteriorated. This could be attributed to the fact that since 1998, new curricula were consistently introduced and changed with an aim of redressing the legacy of apartheid. The whole process of curriculum change not only affected the learners' ability to read, write and count, but the quality of education as well. When reading skill are not developed, learners cannot cope with their academic responsibilities. The aim of this article is to determine whether the recent curriculum, the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), gives the teaching and learning of reading skills the necessary attention, and whether there is improvement in the reading ability of learners. The study used the mixed methods approach, but focused mainly on the qualitative approach, and employed a small scale quantitative focus to collect data from grade ten English First Additional Language (EFAL) learners and their educators, as well as curriculum policy documents. Although on paper CAPS seems to be a good curriculum, three years after its inception, educators are concerned about the reading ability of EFAL learners who are in grade ten in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase. Findings from educators and learners' data indicate that there are some learners who can read well and those who are lagging behind. The challenge of educators not receiving intense training in order to implement the new curriculum was also highlighted. The study recommends that training of educators to implement the new curriculum EFAL educators should focus on building vocabulary and teaching comprehension skills so that the reading levels of EFAL learners in the FET phase can be enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Taiwan, the persistent sex segregation in high school curriculum track has been documented since 1982. This study focuses on the gender beliefs held by adolescents, their parents, and their math teachers, examining to what degree the egalitarian gender beliefs affect the high school curriculum track decisions in Taiwan by using the Taiwan Education Panel Survey. Results show that when adolescents' parents hold egalitarian gender beliefs, both girls and boys have higher odds of choosing non-traditional gender paths. However, the adolescents' own egalitarian gender beliefs only matter for female adolescents, not for male adolescents. This research explores the mechanisms of egalitarian gender beliefs held by multiple socialization agents on non-traditional gendered education decisions. It advocates on the programs that foster egalitarian gender attitudes, which may narrow the sex segregation in high school curriculum tracks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the large volume of research on curriculum reform, very little attention is paid to the implications of geographical location, yet, this can be significant. The current curriculum reform process in Wales has presented an opportunity for schools to radically change their practice. While rural schools have welcomed this opportunity, they face challenges unrecognised by the wider educational establishment. This article presents a view of the reform process from school level, using data from semi‐structured interviews with teachers working on curriculum reform. Thematic analysis reveals enthusiastic responses to reform and the greater autonomy it promises. There are, however, challenges, including concerns about staffing, access to professional learning and learners' access to extra‐curricular learning. The research demonstrates that while rural schools face challenges unique to their location, their response to reform demonstrates a capacity for independent action in line with the aspirations of the new curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposed Curriculum for Wales 2022 presents a bold new vision for curriculum, teaching and learning. Together with its focus on four key purposes, it affords substantially more flexibility and autonomy to teachers and schools, positions learners as central to curriculum decision making, promotes active forms of pedagogy and twenty‐first‐century skills and reduces specification of curriculum content. Like other 'new curriculum' examples around the world, it brings with it a complex set of interacting curricular elements, with challenges including curriculum design capability and the agency required of those working with the curriculum. In this article, we discuss challenges and opportunities for this curriculum reform in light of international curriculum experience. In particular, we highlight the need for attention to the accountability, professional learning and social network context necessary for the realization of national curriculum aspirations in Wales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we present a comparative research project on municipal school policy in Sweden 1950-2010 which in our view contributes to the research fields of education policy and curriculum theory. Our project which started in 2014 links to a line of international research on education policy concerned with the tensions between decentralisation and globalisation and comparative research investigating transnational transfers of education policy ideas. In this article, we provide some preliminary findings which display municipal school policy dealing with national and transnational school initiatives and affecting local school actions. Most of the findings in this article concern the time period 1950-1975, during which the present two Swedish school forms, Grundskolan (a 9-year comprehensive school) and Gymnasieskolan (upper secondary school), were introduced and established.We compare local policy, through six interrelated indicators, in two municipalities with different structures and origins. On the basis of our findings, we conclude that municipal school policy research in a comparative and historical perspective is an important field of research as it reveals the complexity of school governance. Historical studies of municipal school policy and practice are crucial for exploring different dimensions of curriculum theory, including the transnational dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]