1. Organizing for Instruction in Education Systems and School Organizations: How the Subject Matters

Author: James P. Spillane and Megan Hopkins

Source:Journal of Curriculum Studies, 45(6): 721-747

Abstract:Teaching, the core technology of schooling, is an essential consideration in investigations of education systems and school organizations. Taking teaching seriously as an explanatory variable in research on education systems and organizations necessitates moving beyond treating it as a unitary practice, so as to take account of the school subjects implicated in the work. Building on and extending earlier work, in this paper we examine subject matter differences in how one education system (Local Educational Agency) and its elementary schools organize for instruction in the core elementary school subjects. Specifically, this paper explores how education leaders and teachers in one local American school district interact with one another with respect to advice and information about teaching and learning in literacy, mathematics and science. We examine similarities and differences in school staff members’ advice and information networks and consider how these differences relate to the formal organizational infrastructure intended to support instruction.

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2. Modern Education: a Tragedy of the Commons

Author: Smith Grinell and Colette Rabin

Source:Journal of Curriculum Studies, 45(6): 748-767

Abstract:The primary objective of this paper is to suggest a mechanism by which current trends in public education, in particular the rise of externally defined numerical metrics of achievement to define school success, operate to shape school policy, curriculum and practice. Here, we argue that the modern school’s focus on the cognitive dimension of learning in combination with the extensive use of standardized tests as primary evidence of a quality education exploit students as a particular kind of commodity: one that is held in common. This opens the door for a pernicious set of predictable outcomes, known collectively as ‘tragedies of the commons’, first described by the ecologist Garrett Hardin in 1968. From our perspective as researchers, we first describe how a tragedy of the commons can arise in schools. Next, we present a description of a tragedy of the commons at a particular school, illustrating how the school deals with external accountability pressures as would be predicted by the logic of the tragedy of the commons, and how these pressures shape school policy, curriculum and practice. Finally, we suggest how these pressures might be attenuated by purposefully building a strong sense of school community that fosters communication and trust.

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3. Towards a Pedagogy of Listening: Teaching and Learning from Life Stories of Human Rights Violations

Author: Bronwen E. Low and Emmanuelle Sonntag

Source:Journal of Curriculum Studies, 45(6): 768-789

Abstract:In response to the task of designing curriculum that helps youth engage thoughtfully with digital stories of human rights violations, the authors articulate the central tenets of a pedagogy of listening that draws upon elements of oral history, concepts of witnessing and testimony, the work on listening of Dewey, Freire and Rinaldi and the philosophy of listening. These tenets are explored in relation to the five curricular units for secondary schools that they produced as part of a large oral history project that documents the life stories of Montrealers displaced by war, genocide and other human rights violation. The pedagogy of listening aims to: promote more democratic relations, build a listening community and foster close and attentive listening, develop an ethics of listening, support critical reflexive practice and movement towards social action, explore the multitude of listenings, explore listening as curation and foster students’ historical imaginations.

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4. Boundary Objects and Curriculum Change: the Case of Integrated Versus Subject-based Teaching

Author: Magnus Hulten

Source:Journal of Curriculum Studies, 45(6): 790-813

Abstract:The article examines the stability and success of ideas within pedagogical discourses. Why do certain ideas attract actors and how does change come about? These general questions are dealt with through considering the example of the swift spread of an interdisciplinary idea, arbetsområde (translated to ‘spheres of work’) in the process of a Swedish national curriculum reform 1966–1967. How did it manage to become such a central concept in the curriculum? The article uses the concept of the boundary object in order to understand the popularity of the ‘spheres of work’ concept. Boundary objects have normally been used to explain the rigidity of science, and how the heterogeneity of different actors normally involved in the production of scientific knowledge can be coordinated and result in generalizable findings. However, lately, they have been applied to the field of curriculum studies. In this study, a boundary object pinpoints the fact that curricular solutions can be about coordinating different types of actors with different stakes in the making of a curriculum.

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5. Harmony and Disharmony in an Educational Reform Concert: towards a Parsons’Inspired Dynamic Model of Tuning

Author: Thérèse Carpay, Johan Luttenberg, Wiel Veugelers and Jules Pieters

Source:Journal of Curriculum Studies, 45(6): 814-837

Abstract:In large-scale educational reforms, many actors play their roles. The diversity of contributions and lack of harmonization prove to be frequently found to cause educational reform failures. Many explanations for these failures focus on differences between the actors and on differences in their contributions to the reform process. In this article, we examine the effects of these differences and emphasize on the need to harmonize these contributions to the reform process. Contributions by several actors to a large-scale curriculum reform undertaken in the Netherlands in the 1990s are mapped for this purpose. This curriculum reform is part of a larger educational reform aimed to introduce a constructivist approach. Education is conceptualised as a social system, and educational reform as the manner in which this social system adapts to immanent and emmanent changes. The actors in the education system are distributed across functional subsystems. In the present analyses, teacher acting within a particular subsystem stands central. The results show adequate exchange and harmonization of the contributions from the different subsystems to be a necessary condition for successful educational reform. To achieve a good exchange and harmonization, the use of an Educational Impact Assessment is recommended.

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6. Opportunities to Learn about Europe at School:aComparative Analysis among European Adolescents in 21 European Member States

Author: SoetkinVerhaegen, Marc Hooghe and Cecil Meeusen

Source:Journal of Curriculum Studies, 45(6): 838-864

Abstract:In this article, we investigate the relationship between different learning methods and the formation of European identity among adolescents. The analysis is based on the European module of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (2009), with 70,502 respondents in 21 European member states. The results show that offering opportunities for cognitive learning is more strongly related to European identity than social learning opportunities, i.e. opportunities for interactions with citizens from other European Union member states. The occurrence of an interaction effect between cognitive and social learning strategies, however, suggests that jointly offering both learning strategies can be considered the most effective tool for the formation of a European identity. The multilevel analysis reveals the impact of a more Eurosceptic climate on the country level, suggesting that living in a Eurosceptic member state is related to a weaker European identity among adolescents. We close with some observations on how curricula can contribute to a strengthening of European identity.