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An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including curriculum and teaching, pedagogy, and teacher education.

The article announces winners of Editors' Choice paper prize for Volume 28 of the periodical which include "L. V. Shcherba: a ‘new slant' on modern foreign languages in the school curriculum?" and shortlisted such as "Reconsidering school politics: educational controversies in Sweden."

An editorial is presented on papers on curricular mediation and enactment. Topics include focusing on decolonising science in developing critical thinking and enabling representativeness concerned with developing student engagement and criticality; investment in teacher professional education and further research in exploring pedagogy and outcomes in language education in Northern Ireland.

The General Certificate of Education (GCE) A* grade was first awarded to students in 2010. It was introduced to assist higher education institutions in differentiating between the highest performing students and to promote and reward greater stretch and challenge. This paper, based on a synthesis of key policy documents, an analysis of quantitative data and a review of existing research, provides an analysis of the GCE A* grade. The paper begins by introducing the historical and political context that led to the introduction of the A* grade, drawing together policy documents and research carried out by the awarding bodies. The paper then presents an analysis of 2011 A-level data, considering the characteristics of students who achieve the grade and addressing concerns around equality and fairness. A further line of evidence concerns public confidence in the new grade, especially in relation to whether it is fulfilling its purposes. The paper concludes by identifying a number of policy lessons for the future of the GCE A* grade. Forthcoming reforms to the A-level will necessitate a reappraisal of the way A* is calculated: this paper will be a useful source of evidence with which to consider the issues.

This paper sheds light on an important and under‐researched issue: The sources of information about climate change that teachers use. Utilising a 'scoping review' methodological approach, we analysed over 600 papers to address two main questions: What sources of information about climate change are teachers using? In what ways are teachers using these sources of information? Through our use of inclusive search terms and detailed analysis of papers, we found only 13 studies of relevance, none of which primarily focus on the sources of information teachers use. The 13 studies are all located in the Global North, and within this nearly half are in the USA. Methodologically, all apart from two rely on teachers' reports rather than observation or other methods. Four types of sources of information were frequently mentioned: The Internet; government sources; mass media and professional development courses. The 'superabundance' of information now available to teachers (particularly online), the importance of high‐quality information for students' understandings of climate change, and the limited research on the sources of information about climate change that teachers use makes this is a significant blind spot for research to address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the twin processes of neoliberalism and neoconservatism work together on, and through, curricula and their associated pedagogies. It bridges the gap between policy and classroom practice, focusing on the particular example of the school subject of mathematics and the notion of mastery, operationalised in the English education system as Teaching for Mastery (TfM). From this context, it develops a theoretical argument using Dean's analytics of government as part of a broader Foucauldian frame, to analyse how TfM is constructed as a particular policy truth. It then shifts the analysis from a wide, social one to the individual classroom level using a psychological argument to critique TfM in its own terms, examining the onto‐epistemological nature of mathematics as a subject. In doing so, it explores ways in which mastery might be problematic in classrooms, even whilst appearing to offer a solution at policy level to long‐standing problems in English schooling. The aim is not to suggest that TfM has nothing to offer, but to point to ways in which it draws on the psychology of teaching and learning in a very particular manner, inscribing pupils with very specific mathematical subjectivities. By providing this insight into how neoliberal policy positions play out at practitioner level via curricula and pedagogies, the paper raises questions which are philosophical, political, and ethical, regarding the potential effect of TfM on teachers' and pupils' experiences of mathematics in schools, including implications for equity of this experience amongst the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes a theoretical contribution to the discussion of interdisciplinary knowledge in curriculum and research. As a challenge to much of the Mode 2 thesis concerned only with the importance of knowledge being socially relevant, this paper demonstrates how a Bernsteinian approach to interdisciplinarity relates to the internal configurations underpinning interdisciplinary knowledge. Inspired by explorations of Bernsteinian communities, this paper sets out to conceptualize the socio‐epistemic constraints under which powerful disciplinary boundary crossing occurs. The major claim is that the boundaries between disciplines and between them and the field of practice, are essential for boundary crossing. The interdisciplinary efforts do not necessarily involve diminishing disciplinary boundaries, but they are vulnerable to external weakening when there is little connection to the disciplinary core that provides stable internal norms. This paper adds to the discussion by suggesting alternatives to interdisciplinary integration, which do not require a background intellectual consilience between disciplines. It presents an appeal for a form of interdisciplinarity that is pursued to a practical end within refining disciplinary conceptual models, without invoking exaggerated claims for 'relevance', and with no need for a more complex edifice for crossing the established borders between disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent Norwegian curriculum reform for schools, called "The subject renewal", is part of an international trend regarding knowledge‐based curricula. The Norwegian curriculum, which places decisive emphasis on subjects and subject concepts, aims to bring in‐depth learning and knowledge back to schools. This paper is based on Rata's theory, referred to as the curriculum design coherence (CDC) model, and examines the curriculum for social studies. The analysis reveals significant differences in the curriculum's goal formulations, with designs that lack connections between subject concepts and content knowledge, which sheds light on how the transition to a knowledge‐based curriculum is accompanied by several unresolved issues. The paper explains why curricula with coherent designs and epistemically structured knowledge are a prerequisite for in‐depth learning and cumulative knowledge building in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article announces that Andrew Noyes, Geoff Wake, and Pat Drake won the 2013 Editors' Choice paper prize for their article "Time for curriculum reform: the case of mathematics" from Volume 24, Issue 4 of the publication.

This paper focuses on the nature of the legacy that Lawrence Stenhouse bequeathed in the field of curriculum development and research, particularly in relation to his idea of 'the teacher as researcher'. In the process, it explores the contemporary relevance of this legacy to those who are currently attempting to rethink and re‐enact the relationship between teachers and the school curriculum in a policy context. It also explores the impact of Stenhouse's work on the development of a collaborative action research movement within the United Kingdom and beyond. The author distinguishes a particular strand of collaborative action research which he depicts as the neo‐Stenhouse tradition of applied research in education and distinguishes from the Stenhouse legacy as such. This distinction is based on a recognition that Stenhouse's legacy and idea of 'the teacher as researcher' was a work in progress, which he himself acknowledged. Drawing on ambiguities in Stenhouse's thinking about the relationships between educational theory and practice and between teachers and researchers, the author argues that there are strong conceptual links between Stenhouse's idea of 'the teacher as researcher' and his account of case study as a method of applied research in education. The paper concludes with an argument for the contemporary relevance of Stenhouse's work, and the tradition of applied research in education he wanted to establish, in policy contexts where curriculum development and research is dominated by a performative model of rationality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses biographical, historical and comparative perspectives to examine some of the work of Lawrence Stenhouse, widely regarded as one of the leading curriculum theorists of the twentieth century. Although his best‐known work was carried out in England, he had strong Scottish connections and some of the influences on his output can be traced to his higher education in Scotland, his teaching experience in Glasgow and Fife, and his time as Principal Lecturer in Education at Jordanhill College of Education. Particular attention is given to Culture and Education (1967), written during Stenhouse's time in Scotland, and An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development (1975), the product of his experience as Director of the Humanities Curriculum Project and subsequently as Director of the Centre for Applied Research in Education at the University of East Anglia. Stenhouse's personal intellectual journey is related to policy developments in Scotland and England and, in particular, to the different approaches to curriculum development in the two countries. His early death in 1982 meant that he did not live to see the assault on his creative, teacher‐centred approach to curriculum development mounted by the political right in the 1980s and 1990s, but his ideas were kept alive by members of the team he had built up. The paper ends by summarising the reasons for Stenhouse's continuing importance. It is noted, however, that the many tributes to Stenhouse's achievements in England have not been matched by similar recognition in Scotland. Arguably, his ideas could have enabled Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence reform programme, launched in 2004, to have avoided some of the problems it encountered in the transition from conception to implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the divisions within Northern Ireland's education system along religious and academic lines, it has managed to maintain relative stability, or at least a functional inertia, over the past four decades. The full potential, however, of this system and in particular, the Northern Ireland Curriculum (NIC), has yet to be realised. This paper presents a comprehensive exploration of the intricate interplay between the NIC and Initial Teacher Education (ITE), bringing to the fore the footprint of Lawrence Stenhouse. It critically examines the salient features of the NIC, particularly its alignment with Stenhouse's pedagogical tenets, and its subsequent ramifications on ITE, for both its content and pedagogical strategies. The ambitions are, however, not without their challenges. The overarching shadow of an exam‐centric system stymies the NIC's full realisation, presenting a dichotomy between curriculum goals and pragmatic educational realities. The absence of a coherent Teacher Professional Learning framework also inhibited curriculum development. The Learning Leaders strategy, although yet to be implemented due to the collapse of the Northern Ireland Assembly and consequently lack of financial support, has the potential to pick up the baton of reform and help teachers and school leaders move closer to implementing the NIC in the way it was intended. The paper concludes by identifying the probable, possible, plausible and preferred ways forward for NI's education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly forty years ago, Stenhouse argued that the function of the curriculum was to stimulate teachers' everyday reflection about and learning from practice. This suggestion, alongside his support for teachers as researchers, aligns with the Welsh Government's commitment to build an evidence‐informed profession as part of ongoing major education system‐level reforms, including the implementation of the new Curriculum for Wales from September 2022. University initial teacher education (ITE) partnerships are playing an important role in building collaborative research capacity. This paper describes a case study of one such partnership which aims to promote research‐informed, reflective practice among its postgraduate primary student teachers. We use one of Stenhouse's principles of empirical study to frame our discussion of how student teachers' reflective practice is supported through brief conversations with their teacher educators (mentors) during lessons. Using a mixed methods approach, the findings show that student teachers value in‐the‐moment feedback. The intervention also helps them to question aspects of teaching and learning, although such reflection is at a technical level. Our study is useful for teacher educators who are interested in supporting reflective practice through coaching and mentoring. It also cautions school leaders and policymakers implementing major curriculum reforms not to lose sight of Stenhouse's view that 'it is teachers who, in the end, will change the world of the school by understanding it'. The paper concludes by discussing the research implications in shaping emerging practice and policy in the context of ongoing system‐level reform and curriculum implementation in Wales, with potential applicability and portability to other contexts and jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has its origins in the EU Comenius funded GeoCapabilities project. From its outset, the project developed and researched the notion of powerful disciplinary knowledge (PDK) as an underlying principle of curriculum making in the context of secondary school geography teaching. The work, led from the UCL Institute of Education and involving school teachers, teacher educators and other stakeholders across eight mainly European jurisdictions, was framed by Young and Muller's 'three educational scenarios' (Young & Muller, European Journal of Education, 45, 2010 and 11). The three futures heuristic is discussed as a means to distinguish qualities of curriculum thought. Future 3 scenarios, which posit teachers as curriculum makers with responsibility to engage in essential 'knowledge work', provide a principled platform on which to develop ambitious educational classroom encounters. Knowledge working with PDK and (as we go on to argue) other powerful ways of knowing the world, is seen as a bridge between social realist epistemological principles and practical classroom content selections. This opens the possibility of responding to Deng's (Journal of Curriculum Studies, 54, 2022) call for developing practical theories of content with teachers. Although the authors are geographers in education drawing on different international perspectives and traditions, the paper addresses matters of interest applicable to a variety of specialist subject domains across the secondary school curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In England, pupils aged 16 take the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations for a range of subjects. The current assessment models for GCSE include a two-tier structure for some subjects and a non-tier model for the others. The tiered subjects have a higher tier designed for high achieving pupils and a lower tier for low achieving pupils. The higher tier paper is targeted at grades A*–D (with A* the highest grade available), while the lower tier paper at grades C–G (with G the lowest grade). The UK government has proposed a comprehensive reform of GCSEs. It suggested that, with tiered papers, pupils are forced to choose between higher and lower tier papers, which will place a cap on the ambition of those entering for the lower tier. The government therefore suggests avoiding tiering in the reformed GCSEs when possible. This paper discusses the technical and equity issues with the use of tiered examinations in current GCSEs and reviews potential alternative assessment approaches for effective differentiation between pupils for the reformed GCSEs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this paper is to explore and provide an alternative theoretical viewpoint, informed by empirical studies, of the curriculum policy enactment process which spans across different curriculum policy spaces by drawing on figurational sociology. This paper constructs this alternative figurational viewpoint of the policy enactment process by drawing on curriculum policy and policy enactment literature. This viewpoint highlights how a curriculum policy can be (re‐)interpreted, (re‐)translated and (re‐)enacted by multiple, interconnected and interdependent (face‐to‐face and non‐face‐to‐face, recognised and unrecognised, past and present) relationships. We argue the need for agonistic dialogue between the stakeholders of the educational community and how his could lead to these stakeholders working together across curriculum policy spaces (e.g., curriculum development, teacher education, professional development) and on different aspects of 'doing' policy work. We encourage ourselves, and colleagues, to advocate for, support and provide evidence on the centrality of construction and enactment of curriculum policy in effective curriculum change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic, this co‐authored paper grew out of a graduate course on mindfulness and an extended inquiry into what it means to cultivate mindful relationships in curriculum as lived experience. Centring three graduate students' experiential projects, including two projects of interactions with nature and one project of interpersonal interactions, this paper demonstrates the process of practicing mindfulness from students' perspectives as individual inquiry, a process that was filled with curves and frustrations as well as revelations and potentiality. The teacher educator created pedagogical conditions but the students enacted their own curriculum in their lived experience of forming mindful relationships. A further layer of inquiry was conducted in the conversations among the three graduate students and the teacher educator, from which shared meanings of time, self‐understanding, gender and making connections across difference emerged. A reconstructed conversation was composed to demonstrate this inquiry process. Curriculum as lived experience, including curriculum as a complicated conversation, is the orientation for this individual and group inquiry. This study shows that curriculum as mindfully lived in relationship is an emergent process of cultivating both deepened self‐understanding and relational attunement, sustained through a lived body, lived time and space, and lived connections across difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poor success rate of policy for curriculum change has been widely noted in the educational change literature. Part of the problem lies in the complexity of schools, as policy-makers have proven unable to micro-manage the multifarious range of factors that impact upon the implementation of policy. This article draws upon empirical data from a local authority-led initiative to implement Scotland's new National Curriculum. It offers a set of conceptual tools derived from critical realism (particularly the work of Margaret Archer), which offer significant potential in allowing us to develop greater understanding of the complexities of educational change. Archer's social theory developed as a means of explaining change and continuity in social settings. As schools and other educational institutions are complex social organisations, critical realism offers us methodological tools for tracking the ebbs and flows of change cycles over time, presenting the means for mapping the multifarious networks and assemblages that form their basis. (Contains 2 figures and 3 notes.)

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses several articles published within issue on topics including critique of current trajectories in curriculum studies, feedback as a relational rather than technical concept, and micro-level classroom interactions.

The Transition Year (TY) programme is an optional, one-year, stand-alone, full-time programme offered in 75% of second-level schools in the Republic of Ireland. Aimed at those in the 15-16 age group, TY has a strong focus on personal and social development and on education for active citizenship. The implementation of TY in schools is seen as a case study in curriculum innovation. Evidence from the programme's history and development, from studies of attitudes to TY in six schools and among policy shapers, suggests ambiguous views among stakeholders towards the programme. Enthusiasm for aspects of the innovation is accompanied by resistance to its more challenging features. Schools' responses to the programme are examined from a range of perspectives. (Contains 9 notes.)

This paper examines ways in which approaches to English as Additional Language (EAL) can be decolonised in schools. In an attempt to break traditional divides between academic research and pedagogical practice in this area, this article adopts a collaborative perspective, between an EAL advisory and support teacher and an academic member of staff working in university. Drawing on dialogues and co‐analysis with EAL practitioners, this article reflects on limitations of current provision and practice and suggests alternative, decolonial and anti‐racist approaches to the education of EAL students. At both school and university level, 'one size fits all approaches' tend to negate the deep historical, social and political roots and contexts which underpin the experiences of 'EAL students' at different levels of education. Issues related to equitable assessment, inclusion, linguistic support and anti‐racism tend to be side lined in favour of a focus on language proficiency and attainment, which most often overshadows the complex experiences and needs of students labelled 'EAL'. In this respect, the questions of relevant, decentred and decolonised curricula and forms of assessment that can promote inclusion for students who have experienced migration and are placed in monolingual educational environments in the UK are crucial. Through a decolonial perspective on the curriculum, language and pedagogical practice, inspired by postcolonial studies and Critical Race Theory, this paper discusses three main areas that emerged as crucial to a deeper and critical engagement with English as an Additional Language and the experience of students: (1) the need for a critical reflection on ideas of inclusion and mainstreaming; (2) active anti‐racist work in schools and initial teacher training; and (3) decolonising assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article announces that Professor Gert Biesta has won the Editors' Choice paper prize for the article "Pragmatising the curriculum: bringing knowledge back into the curriculum conversation, but via pragmatism."

The article offers information on the journal's annual best paper prize, in which the papers will be evaluated by the editors and forwarded to the British Educational Research Association's (BERA) Academic Publications Committee for consideration.

An introduction to the topics discussed within the issue is presented, including the incorporation of digital learning experience into the curriculum, interaffective learning experiences in higher vocational education curriculum and visual representation in senior high school biology assessment.

Over 60 years of technology development, transformation of educational policy and curriculum innovation in Ireland have resulted in the introduction of the Computer Science (CS) subject in Post‐Primary (PP) Education. CS has always been conceived digitally and the Digital Learning Experiences (DLE) enacted through its curriculum are strongly interconnected to the opportunities and limitations offered by Digital Spaces (DS). However, key challenges have been identified for the successful implementation of CSE, from teachers' digital competencies and educational strategies in the classroom to learners' varying experiences of CSE. Through a systematic literature review of the educational policies and practices in Ireland's Educational System, this paper documents the digital evolution from the 1960s accounting for the CS curriculum. The literature review identifies key themes in how DS have been conceptualised through CSE, responding to learners' needs and teachers' skills and competencies, informed by emerging societal demands by providing evidence on the disparity between educational policy and practice for DS. Building upon the identified themes, this paper emphasises the importance of the design and implementation of DLE in DS such as the CS subject that considers historical lessons learned to respond to the uncertainties of the digital future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to articles published within the issue is presented, including one by Morag Henderson on a study which addresses student choices of subjects, another by Andrew Withell et al, on a study on teachers as researchers coupled with theories of critical realism to explore design and business processes, and one by Lisl Fenwick on two cross-curricular areas in the context of secondary education, literacy and metacognition.

An introduction is presented in which author discusses articles on topics including focuses on education in age of crisis and for the future, tensions when classic curricula are challenged for their elitist stigma and values in curriculum as the relatively unexplored role of textbooks in education.

'The knowledge question', addressing what students need to know and learn, becomes particularly relevant during the process of a new school reform. This paper examines the political messages and the role of knowledge in the current curriculum reform initiative for primary and secondary education in Norway (2020). The study is based on a document analysis of four key policy documents and one subject curriculum. Analysis reveals that, although the messages in the policy documents express expectations of strengthening the knowledge dimension in the school subjects, analysis of a new subject curriculum framework indicates that it more clearly prescribes skills, methods and strategies than the specialised knowledge content to teach. We conclude that the continuation of a competency‐oriented curriculum model, wherein the competence aims are the governing category, explicit content is difficult to prescribe because of the contrasting assumptions that underline a content‐oriented versus a competence‐oriented curriculum. The two curriculum models demand different approaches to 'the knowledge question', and raises questions about whether combining these two orientations in one curriculum model is possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an exploration into a reform of the A-level qualification in England in 2008; namely, the introduction of the ‘stretch and challenge’ policy. This policy was initiated by the exams regulator and determined that exam papers should be redesigned to encourage the application of higher order thinking skills, both in the classroom and in examinations. The present study comprised two strands that explored the perceptions of students (n = 39) and teachers (n = 27) regarding the degree to which the incorporation of opportunities for stretch and challenge in the new examination papers had been achieved, and the likely effects on teaching, learning and exam preparation. On the whole, students and teachers welcomed the stretch and challenge policy and there were some indications that changes to the design of question papers could have some positive backwash effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the authors discusses articles in the issue on topics including student engagement with curriculum, culturally resonant curriculum, and role of higher education students as curriculum makers in integrated, interdisciplinary undergraduate programs.

This paper has its origins in the EU Comenius funded GeoCapabilities project. From its outset, the project developed and researched the notion of powerful disciplinary knowledge (PDK) as an underlying principle of curriculum making in the context of secondary school geography teaching. The work, led from the UCL Institute of Education and involving school teachers, teacher educators and other stakeholders across eight mainly European jurisdictions, was framed by Young and Muller's 'three educational scenarios' (Young & Muller, "European Journal of Education," 45, 2010 and 11). The three futures heuristic is discussed as a means to distinguish qualities of curriculum thought. Future 3 scenarios, which posit teachers as curriculum makers with responsibility to engage in essential 'knowledge work', provide a principled platform on which to develop ambitious educational classroom encounters. Knowledge working with PDK and (as we go on to argue) other powerful ways of knowing the world, is seen as a bridge between social realist epistemological principles and practical classroom content selections. This opens the possibility of responding to Deng's ("Journal of Curriculum Studies," 54, 2022) call for developing practical theories of content with teachers. Although the authors are geographers in education drawing on different international perspectives and traditions, the paper addresses matters of interest applicable to a variety of specialist subject domains across the secondary school curriculum.

In June 2020, the world witnessed an upsurge in Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstrations following the murder of George Floyd, an African American, by a White American police officer. The international response called for the global community to reassess the value of black lives blighted by racist social systems. The mass sentiment acted as a catalyst for educational institutions, including those in the UK, to mount a response. It is in this context that a School Partnership Group representing primary and secondary schools in East London embarked on developing a workshop series for the professional development of school leaders. The sessions were aimed at school transformation through anti‐racist educational approaches. In this article, we present a discussion of the workshop series held in the academic year 2020–2021, which brought school leaders together in a reflective community of practice. Drawing on data from focus group conversations carried out following the end of the series, this paper argues for school leaders' professional development that prioritises 'deep understanding' supported by reflective communities of practice as a pre‐requisite for effective anti‐racist practice and sustained school transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on "The Curriculum Journal" and its services. It cites that the journal's existence promotes and explores all aspects of curricular development and inquiry. The editors of the journal has invited contributions on all aspects in education from all over the world. Moreover, it provides an address for literary work submissions.

The article invites contributors to "The Curriculum Journal.

An introduction to the journal is presented which discusses topics within the issue including curriculum orientations of immigrant parents; key concerns in the teaching of science in schools; and effect of the lens of the teacher on summative assessment decision making.

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]

Language learning can open up new worlds and deepen understanding of our own. It can foster awareness of other people, other places and cultures, and bring social and educational benefits. Northern Ireland (NI) is an increasingly multilingual region that is emerging from conflict into a welcome, but fragile, peace. It faces unique uncertainties caused by Brexit, as well as the need to develop empathy in face of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Concerns have been expressed also about academic underachievement and mental health amongst its young people. Against such a background, this paper explores the current context in NI relating to languages, and curriculum policy and practice in language education. It argues that young people in NI are poorly served, and that curriculum reform with respect to languages is timely. The paper makes five key recommendations: (1) Reform of curriculum, policy and practice relating to language education in NI; (2) Introduction of statutory language learning in primary schools; (3) Investment in teacher development; (4) Valuing of linguistic diversity and plurality in curriculum policy and practice; and (5) Further practice‐based research to explore pedagogy and outcomes in language education in NI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on Bourdieu's theorising (particularly habitus and field) to think about position‐making of teachers in respect of the early enactment of the Australian Curriculum. Position‐making, a concept developed from the analysis proffered, can be contrasted with the more common practice of position‐taking endemic in a relatively stable field. Position‐making is an ongoing phenomenon in a changing field when the habitus is out of place, here the field of the new Australian Curriculum, creating the effect of what Bourdieu sees as hysteresis. This paper explores the positioning and re‐positioning of agents (teachers and school leaders) due to an external change (the Australian curriculum) in the schooling field. Data for this study were collected from a middle‐class state high school in Brisbane Australia, which was an early adopter of the new Australian Curriculum. The initial enactment phase of curriculum change was an unsettling one that (re)positioned agents—hence, the concept of position‐making, which is a contribution to Bourdieu's theoretical resources and which complements the idea of policy enactment as opposed to policy implementation. Both allow some agency in mediation of mandated changes in the specific contexts of schools and teacher/leader habitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In BERA's 50th anniversary, this special issue of the Curriculum Journal recognises the debt to the work of Lawrence Stenhouse, former BERA President, and founder of the British Curriculum Forum (BCF), and his influence on teachers' work in researching and developing the curriculum. Papers in this issue address what Stenhouse called the central problem of evidence‐informed practice: 'the gap between our ideas and our aspirations and our attempts to operationalise them' (Stenhouse, 1975, 2–3). Stenhouse's legacy for curriculum models and thinking, both within the four home countries and internationally, highlights the methodologies and theoretical perspectives that inform teachers as researchers and how we understand and evaluate such frames of reference. Approaches to involving teachers as researchers examined in this collection resonate with BERA's strategic plan to build on its links with practitioners, set in the context of BCF and its work to support teachers' curriculum research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation is repeatedly found to be a determining factor for achievement in language acquisition at school. Decades of Self‐determination theory (SDT) research has shown that students exhibit higher levels of engagement and positive learning behaviours when their basic psychological needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness are satisfied, resulting in intrinsic motivation. This paper explores and juxtaposes the motivational potential of the International Baccalaureate curriculum against the revised GCSE modern foreign language (MFL) curriculum through an SDT lens. A curriculum that is autonomy‐supportive rather than autonomy‐suppressive allows more opportunities for both students and teachers psychological needs for motivation to be met. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the transfer, translation and recontextualisation of Laurence Stenhouse's work, as encapsulated in the 'teacher as researcher' metaphor, to the Greek language and in the fields of research and policy in Greece and Cyprus. We first briefly frame action research work as emerging through and within a specific space‐time (and in conversation with others in North America, Australia and Europe). We then trace its translation from English to Greek in specific key publications in books and articles (including his 1975 seminal work An introduction to curriculum research and development), which have since been central to curriculum studies as an academic field in both countries. We then construct four vignettes as cases of different uses of the metaphor in different fields. The first two refer to the institutional context of a new type of school called 'second chance schools' and a state policy for the professional development of teachers in Greece. The other two refer to an initial teacher education university programme and to the most recent school curriculum change in the Republic of Cyprus. We conclude by discussing certain patterns of constriction across the four vignettes in the recontextualisation of the 'teacher as researcher' to particular aspects of the metaphor as it morphed in two rather centralised contexts with a strong historical presence of a formal, state‐mandated curriculum and of teachers as public servants. Despite these patterns of constriction, we also note how other aspects of the metaphor provided conditions for some transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In England, the development of teachers' curriculum design capabilities has been identified as a 'challenge remaining' (Department for Education [DfE]. (2022). Opportunity for all: Strong schools with great teachers for your child.https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/opportunity‐for‐all‐strong‐schools‐with‐great‐teachers‐for‐your‐child). A recent White Paper (Department for Education [DfE]. (2022). Opportunity for all: Strong schools with great teachers for your child.https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/opportunity‐for‐all‐strong‐schools‐with‐great‐teachers‐for‐your‐child) offered access to a publicly funded online platform as a solution. Drawing on Stenhouse's concepts of teachers as researchers and curriculum as an inquiry process, this article argues that such a policy initiative restricts both curriculum and professional development. An alternative approach to curriculum design, one based on Stenhouse's conception of the iterative development of teachers' professional and curriculum knowledge is profiled. In this article, we, as four teacher‐researchers, analyse a project which featured the Curriculum Design Coherence (CDC) model. We share insights gained from our involvement, both in relation to our professional learning and the impact of our curriculum design work on our pupils. We argue that the 'othering' of teachers in research contributes towards the under valuing of practice‐informed evidence in policy making. We draw on the work of Lawrence Stenhouse to inform a different means of generating educational research evidence, one that sustains teacher‐researchers through engagement with principles and concepts so as to inform policy and curriculum development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we interrogate and justify the design of a local project that used collaborative design research in a secondary school in England. As authors, we represent teachers and teacher educators engaged in design research, whereby we acknowledge the difficulties implicit to university and school collaborations within a performative culture. Our analysis recognises the struggle for research‐informed professional judgement in the decision‐making and actions of educators that are situated in schools. A professional learning project is analysed to position teachers and teacher educators as practitioner researchers. In this respect, Stenhouse's work provides an analytical framework that is both a lens through which to interpret the nature of collaborations, as well as a methodology that allows us to understand the way in which we navigate the gap between educators' aspirations and the curriculum design and teaching within the project. The collaborative design research project was stimulated by an aspiration to make trigonometry accessible to low prior attaining pupils in a secondary mathematics classroom. This provides a stimulus for understanding the conditions that enable collaborative lesson inquiry and to question whether it can provoke raised aspirations for young people in inclusive classrooms. This allows us to understand the work of teachers as researchers and research users in an increasingly messy teacher education context. We interrogate the potentially problematic connection between research and practice within collaborative inquiry, as we understand how we enable research that is "held accountable for its relevance to practice" because "that relevance can only be validated by practitioners" (Stenhouse, 1988, p. 49). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher evaluation and teachers' professional learning are too often confined to separate areas of research and professional practice. Rather than approach evaluation and enquiry as distinct or irreconcilable, this paper applies the ideas of Stenhouse to explore new possibilities for the reappropriation of mandated appraisal in ways that support teachers' professional growth. Illustrative case studies of laboratory schools in the United States and England are used to examine the interaction of local and lateral forms of professional accountability with external and hierarchical regulatory frameworks. The article reports the design and enactment of change in two schools (a US kindergarten through twelfth grade school and a UK high school) connected through the International Association of Laboratory Schools (IALS) that purposively redesigned appraisal over a three‐year period to build capacity for collaborative curriculum enquiry. Attention is afforded to the space for manoeuvre between advisory and mandatory guidance, and the challenges to relational trust and collective responsibility posed by performance‐based accountability systems. The findings provide new insights into how teacher‐led collaborative enquiry (curricular co‐design) can address the unintended consequences of test‐based accountability and rubrics‐based observation as principal drivers of educational improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The teaching profession and initial teacher education face ongoing pressures which challenge how teachers' work with curriculum is positioned. Within Australia, recent reviews into initial teacher education have emphasised the need for 'classroom ready' graduates with knowledge of 'proven' pedagogical approaches. Parallel to this has been increasing push for 'ready‐made' curriculum materials to be made available to all teachers for their use in classrooms. This discourse espouses curriculum as a product, positioning preservice teachers as future 'deliverers' of prescriptive forms of curriculum and dismissing their future potential as classroom curriculum‐makers who engage with curriculum as a process, and think systematically and critically about their curriculum choices. In this paper, we explore the classroom curriculum‐making experiences of two preservice teachers, and the role of professional experience placements as key sites of learning about curriculum‐making, noting this as a significantly under‐researched theme in existing literature. Our in‐depth exploration of these individual cases highlights the contrasting opportunities these teachers had to engage with curriculum as a process, identifying, enabling and constraining structures within these placements which impact on preservice teachers' development, and future potential, as curriculum‐makers. We contend that the pursuit of Lawrence Stenhouse's vision of curriculum work as an iterative, enquiry process driven by and for teachers rests not only on the way in which initial teacher education frames curriculum work in theory, but also in the way it is modelled to preservice teachers during their professional experience placements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the UK government's target of Net Zero by 2050, alongside the rising cost of energy in the UK, it is imperative that public opinion aligns with and promotes affordable, greener energy systems. Within this dialogue, young people's voices and lived experience are needed to deepen the impact of energy policy intervention strategies. This article stresses the importance of a formal curriculum that informs future generations on the subjects of Smart Local Energy Systems (SLES), and the digitalisation advances of energy systems. This paper explores the development of a toolkit to educate and engage young people in these subjects and reviews young people's attitudes and understanding from three schools in England, UK. We find through an interpretive qualitative analysis of both images drawn by the young people, and insights gathered from focus groups, that (i) for these young people, SLES are a useful innovation regarding energy management and distribution, (ii) young people recognise that the education system as it currently stands is not aware of, or informed by smart energy technologies and (iii) that despite being a generation that is the most integrated with personal assistance technology, these young people have significant concerns over the reliability and safety of AI in SLES. These findings are set alongside calls for widespread education in key stages 4 and 5 (ages 14–18) around the subject of SLES, and their benefits to wider society, thereby enabling a future that empowers young people to make change, encourage engineering and computer science‐based career options and secure a fairer, cleaner, sustainable energy transition in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper investigates the effects of integrating multiliteracies in a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programme on language development and content understanding among preschoolers in an urban city of Greece. The case study focuses on early literacy skills, spoken discourse and vocabulary. The research questions, which guided the study, aims to explore the impact of multiliteracies integration in the CLIL programme on early literacy skills and to understand how it influences spoken discourse, and vocabulary skills among preschoolers. A convenient sampling method was employed, and the study was conducted during the school year 2022–2023 in a preschool involving 40 preschoolers. The programme followed a structured process involving experience, conceptualization, critical thinking and real‐life application. Data collection methods included pre‐tests, post‐tests and classroom observations. The findings revealed the positive effects of integrating multiliteracies in the CLIL programme on their language skills. The preschoolers saw an observable enhancement in fluency, vocabulary usage and oral communication abilities. Observations highlighted increased language engagement, oral discourse production, interaction and collaboration, multimodal learning experiences, motivation and engagement and the development of critical thinking skills, emphasizing the effectiveness of the CLIL programme in fostering oral communication skills and creating an immersive educational environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge and its acquisition are central to the field of curriculum studies, but the ways in which empirical studies of pedagogical approaches relate to theories of knowledge acquisition are under researched. This paper reports the outcomes of a rapid evidence assessment about the impacts of experiential learning (EL), regarded by some as progressive pedagogy, on the school attainment of children aged 4–14. Database searches of the Education Resources Information Center, the British Education Index, the Teacher Reference Center, the Education Database and APA PsycINFO were carried out to review peer‐reviewed research studies published between 2013 and 2023. In total, 465 studies were screened for their relevance, and the Mixed methods appraisal tool was used to assess the methodological quality of relevant studies; 44 studies were included in the final analysis. The findings of the research showed the overall positive impact of EL pedagogies on children's academic achievement. Key examples of positive impact included evidence for the beneficial effects of EL on the achievement of children with lower academic achievement; strong links between EL and science achievement; and the positive impact that EL has on domain‐general academic skills including memory and vocabulary development. Some links between EL and children's motivation, engagement, agency, and wellbeing, factors which underpin academic achievement, are also noted. The findings indicate that EL can be a highly valuable approach to enhancing children's acquisition of knowledge, skills and understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]