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In Norway, the national curriculum together with the Education Act serves as the foundation for teaching and learning in primary and secondary education and training. Local educational providers are given autonomy to develop local adaptations of the centrally given subject-specific curriculum competence aims. This article explores some structural enablements and constraints tied to teachers' opportunities to make use of local content in curricula in lower secondary schools in Norway, including rural/urban differences. The analysis is based on data consisting of 18 qualitative interviews with teachers in two municipalities and participant observation in one of the municipalities in Northern Norway. The finding of this paper is that the design of the national curriculum allows for local content based on its competence aims. This serves as an enabler for teachers to create and enact local content in education. However, there are several constraints that limit local adaptation for teachers – time pressure, lack of access to content due to finances and distance and losing school control of local curriculum. Also, these constraints have a different impact depending on the geographical context. The article employs Margaret Archer's theories on centralized and decentralized educational systems to analyse these structural enablements and constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of geography is declining in popularity at secondary school level and recent developments following the ‘cultural turn’ in Higher Education have had little impact in revitalising it. In this paper I explore the question: is there a problem with the school geography curriculum policy? After briefly sketching the history of the Geography National Curriculum policy (GNC), I focus on Caputo's (1997) commentary on Derrida and the idea of deconstruction and invention to explore the contemporary GNC policy text (1999) programme of study at Key Stage 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of Drama as a subject in the Australian Curriculum is largely a result of the unwavering advocacy of national associations (like Drama Australia) and alliances, in particular the National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE). This article briefly outlines stages in national curriculum development in Australia and delineates key organisations and individuals who have contributed to the inclusion of drama within Australia’s national curriculum. The paper draws from previously published material, interviews with representatives from each state professional association, and extended interviews with members of the NAAE. The authors propose that the most significant contributing factor to the inclusion of drama in the educational entitlement for all young people in the Australian national curriculum has been collaborative advocacy, carefully managed by a national advocacy collective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]