Constructing a rich curriculum for all: One school's enactment of curricular justice

Despite the commitment by governments and educational leaders to high-quality and high-equity systems, the defining features of contemporary schooling in Australia and elsewhere are increasing inequality and the uneven distribution of educational opportunities and outcomes. Therefore, it is timely to consider what the concept of curricular justice means for schooling in the twenty-first century. This paper argues for a rich, common curriculum that provides all young people with learning choices that have relevance to their worlds, contribute to the preparation for work or further education, alongside opportunities for engagement with a broader knowledge base connected to critical understandings of culture and society. We contend that a knowledge + plus curriculum is one that is committed to the tripartite social justice principles of redistribution, recognition and representation, which brings together powerful knowledge and young people’s community funds of knowledge in a common curriculum. Such a common curriculum is essential for a common schooling, which can deliver on the promise of a high-quality and high-equity education system for all young people.

The concept of ‘powerful knowledge’ has become extremely influential in discussions about curriculum in England over the last ten years. However, the concept seems to have done little to revolutionise curriculum design, and in some cases it has led to curricular narrowing and a focus on an increasingly nationalistic narrative in history. Michael Young (2019, 2021) has argued that the failure of the concept of ‘powerful knowledge’ to underpin meaningful curriculum reforms has been mainly due to its misinterpretation and loose definition. This paper explores these claims and finds that key voices in education in England, and history education specifically, have misunderstood and misapplied the concept of powerful knowledge. However, it also makes the case that powerful knowledge cannot be meaningfully defined in terms of history education, and that attempts to make curricular decisions based on the concept are therefore a distraction from more meaningful curricular work.

Organizational justice enactment: An agent-focused review and path forward

Friends and other peer relationships can motivate students to engage in school work as well as in extracurricular activities. To understand when and how peers matter, research on the positive and negative engagement “effects” of friends, peer support, and socially marginalizing experiences, such as peer rejection and bullying, is reviewed. The chapter starts with a brief summary of research demonstrating the links between school belonging and academic engagement and extracurricular involvement. The ways in which selection of friends and the influence of friends, quality of friendships, and type of friendship support (academic or emotional) are related to academic engagement and extracurricular involvement in school are then discussed. Studies examining whether the number of friends or the size of peer network is related to school engagement are also included. The chapter ends with a discussion about future research needs in relation to the role of peer relationships and student engagement, and implications for school policies (e.g., academic tracking, grade retention, and extracurricular practices).

Preparing young people to meet the complex challenges of a rapidly warming world has become an important international educational priority. However, recent work on ‘petro-pedagogies’ demonstrates fossil fuel corporations’ influence on curriculum materials and pedagogical experiences in some educational jurisdictions, contributing to uneven opportunities for young people to learn just energy transitions. This article investigates fossil fuel corporations’ engagement in public schools in Australia, based on interviews with ten differently positioned actors across five Australian states and territories (six public school principals in ‘mining towns’, a fossil fuel corporation representative directly responsible for corporate ‘gift-giving’ to public schools, a high school student climate advocate, a parent, and a climate justice campaigner). Interview accounts of fossil fuel corporations’ philanthropic gift-giving, financial donations, sponsoring and curriculum involvement in schools are analysed through the concepts of the gift economy, petro-pedagogies, and curricular justice. Our critical thematic analysis unthreads examples of targeted recruitment strategies of young people in recipient schools, and the purchase of social license through fossil fuel corporations’ branding in and through these schools. We argue that such petro-pedagogical engagements in schools exploit the school funding vacuum and risk inhibiting opportunities for recipients of these gifts to critically examine the fossil fuel industry and to collectively imagine alternative energy futures. We argue for increased public school funding and greater transparency and regulation of fossil fuel corporations’ ‘gift giving’ to public schools.

Some of the key events that led to political unrest, demonstrations, and one high school's involvement in the radioactive waste issue.


 
 
 Academic engagement used to refer to the extent to which students identify with and value schooling outcomes, and participate in academic and non-academic school activities. This study aims to investigate the academic engagement and satisfaction from the school among the university students. The data is taken from the undergraduate students in School of Transportation & Logistics in Istanbul University. We used a questionnaire that consisted of two parts. First part of the questionnaire is about to measure the students’ academic engagement that is improved by Schaufeli et al. Second part of the questionnaire is about to measure the students’ satisfaction from the school. K-means cluster analysis is used to determine two groups of students, group the students in to two clusters based on their school satisfaction scores. We named these two groups as “satisfied” and “unsatisfied” students. Secondly we investigate the relationships between the satisfaction scores and the academic engagement. By means of T Test we investigate whether the academic engagement differs between the clusters that are determined according to the students’ satisfaction scores. Finally we found that academic engagement differs according to the identified clusters.
 
 

Recent studies by economists such as Piketty (2013, 2019) and Atkinson (2015) have contested the well-established view that post-war redistribution policies have been successful in the long term at slowing down the rise of structural inequalities. In reality, the claim goes, they have dealt mostly with reducing inequalities of income through redistribution and have left inequalities of wealth and capital ownership uncontrolled. These, according to their studies, have now risen in the developed world and reached levels more typical of 19th Century Europe. To make matters worse, perceptions of and attitudes towards fighting inequalities as unjust that Rawls saw as based on a wide consensus of citizens' "considered judgments" (Rawls, 1999, p. 17), have changed, leading to them being accepted as the justified and even necessary price to pay for economic growth and as a reward for merit. Economic arguments based on the need for incentives for raising productivity and the "trickle-down effect" have become widely accepted as if the price of economic efficiency should be disconnected from the demands of equity. Meritocracy has provided ethical arguments too. As John Roemer says, "today the most important problem for the social sciences of inequality is understanding how electorates have come to acquiesce to policies which increase inequality… and to try revealing the logic of the I would like to thank the editors of the Special Issue on Rawls for inviting me to develop ideas that I first presented in a previous paper published in French in 2016, "L'état-providence face aux inégalités et la démocratie de propriétaires: une comparaison entre Meade, Rawls, Ackerman et Piketty," Tocqueville Review, 2/2016), as well as in another paper in English in 2018: « Self-development and Social Justice ». I hope to be able to develop these ideas in a future book on property-owning democracy and its philosophical justifications.

Outdoor adventure education (OAE) is embedded in the educational policy of countries around the world, with the objective of enhancing self-development in teenagers. Despite the apparent effectiveness of OAE, the research literature is criticised as being somewhat fragmented and as lacking methodological rigour. This has implications for undermining the position of OAE in the Australian curriculum. Accordingly, this investigation provides a critical review of outdoor education literature, conducts psychometric validation of the research instrumentation and reports on a longitudinal, controlled trial investigation of an OAE program. Research indicates that OAE generally has a positive impact on the most widely studied psychological outcomes (e.g. self-concept, locus of control; ES ~ .32). Despite this, limitations of the existing quantitative literature include insufficient methodological rigour and the lack of a unified theory identifying the underlying mechanisms of change. Thus, the promising results are often described to be anecdotal. To address these shortcomings, this research surveyed 346 male students enrolled in a single-sex Australian high school who were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: either attending a five-month OAE program, or continuing with their regular schooling i.e. the waitlist-control condition. The quantitative survey tool used contained 32 scales from nine established psychological instruments. Self Determination Theory (SDT) provided the framework through which changes in students’ self-concept, life effectiveness, locus of control and other key psychological resources are inferred. Study 1 investigated the psychometric properties of the survey instrument. Structural equation modelling supported the combined instruments’ a priori factor structure (TLI = .93; CFI = .94; RMSEA = .02). Strong measurement invariance was observed and multitrait-multimethod analysis found good support for convergent and discriminant validity. Study 2 conducted a longitudinal investigation of the OAE outcomes. Short-term gains were observed on 19 of 32 outcomes (standardised ES = .18 to .71), with the greatest benefits found in social-emotional functioning, wellbeing, parent relations self-concept and locus of control. Six-month follow-up revealed maintenance of effects on 10 outcomes and the emergence of new gains on 7 outcomes (standardised ES = .17 to .39). The greatest benefits were found in social-emotional functioning, wellbeing, resilience, and academic engagement (persistence, planning and task management). Study 2 further investigated the impact of students’ baseline aptitude on treatment effectiveness, finding no systematic effects. Thus, the benefits from the outdoor experience appeared to be comparably available to all students regardless of whether they exhibited strength, or weakness against a particular outcome at the beginning of the program. Investigation into the mediating role of SDT’s basic psychological needs revealed that from the 19 short-term effects, psychological needs satisfaction primarily mediated 10 outcomes and partially mediated 8 outcomes. The findings from this research demonstrate the potential for OAE to benefit students’ long-term psychosocial development that compliments traditional schooling. Furthermore, the principals of SDT appear to be largely applicable in OAE settings and it is suggested that basic psychological needs may be manipulated to foster greater program engagement and transference of health outcomes. These promising results, along with the research strengths and limitations, are discussed within the context of existing OAE literature. The implications for policy and practice, as well as directions for future research are further explored. It is hoped that this methodologically rigorous investigation will provide a strong basis for future studies to build on, while informing a more unified framework for OAE program design and implementation so that the most effective educational experiences can be provided.

The paper highlights Rachid Ghannouchi’s political ideas in the context of the growth of political Islam in the Arab world by focusing on historical and political development that underlie the democratic process in Tunisia. It discusses political idealism he developed in Ennahda movement (The Renaissance Party) based on the principles of freedom and justice and its uncompromising opposition to the autocratic regime of Habib Bourguiba (1957-1987) and his successor Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali (1987-2011). The study is qualitative in nature in the form of documentary and content analysis. It used descriptive, analytical and historical approaches to analyse data derived from established archival sources. The study found that Ennahda which was founded by Ghannouchi in 1980 had broad influence in mainstream Islamic politics in Tunisia, that espouse to dismantle the autocratic rule and decolonise the corrupt practice and political suppression of past regime. The influence it developed had broadly impacted both Islamic and secular forces to converge and commit toward democratic rule, human rights and the principle of justice, freedom, and the rule of law

The paper highlights Rachid Ghannouchi’s political ideas in the context of the growth of political Islam in the Arab world by focusing on historical and political development that underlie the democratic process in Tunisia. It discusses political idealism he developed in Ennahda movement (The Renaissance Party) based on the principles of freedom and justice and its uncompromising opposition to the autocratic regime of Habib Bourguiba (1957-1987) and his successor Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali (1987-2011). The study is qualitative in nature in the form of documentary and content analysis. It used descriptive, analytical and historical approaches to analyse data derived from established archival sources. The study found that Ennahda which was founded by Ghannouchi in 1980 had broad influence in mainstream Islamic politics in Tunisia, that espouse to dismantle the autocratic rule and decolonise the corrupt practice and political suppression of past regime. The influence it developed had broadly impacted both Islamic and secular forces to converge and commit toward democratic rule, human rights and the principle of justice, freedom, and the rule of law

The paper highlights Rachid Ghannouchi’s political ideas in the context of the growth of political Islam in the Arab world by focusing on historical and political development that underlie the democratic process in Tunisia. It discusses political idealism he developed in Ennahda movement (The Renaissance Party) based on the principles of freedom and justice and its uncompromising opposition to the autocratic regime of Habib Bourguiba (1957-1987) and his successor Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali (1987-2011). The study is qualitative in nature in the form of documentary and content analysis. It used descriptive, analytical and historical approaches to analyse data derived from established archival sources. The study found that Ennahda which was founded by Ghannouchi in 1980 had broad influence in mainstream Islamic politics in Tunisia, that espouse to dismantle the autocratic rule and decolonise the corrupt practice and political suppression of past regime. The influence it developed had broadly impacted both Islamic and secular forces to converge and commit toward democratic rule, human rights and the principle of justice, freedom, and the rule of law

Educational policies and practices pertaining to initial professional formation focus upon the implementation of the student-centered concept. New tendencies regarding quality assurance of educational programs recommend that curricula should contain the most efficient teaching methods, in order to contribute to the formation of students’ professional competences. Specialty literature studies claim that the efficiency and performance of these competences depend largely not only on the course design but also on the learning style as well as on the student’s level of engagement in his/her own learning activity. Students’ academic engagement represents an umbrella term which implies students’ active engagement in the learning activities offered by the training programs. Academic engagement is often linked with good learning outcomes, such university persistence, high level of test achievement etc. The present study proposes to identify the level of academic engagement, the modality of self-regulated learning, as well as the type of relation established between the two constructs with the students of two specializations (technical and social studies). The measuring of constructs is achieved through applying the Inventory of Learning Styles and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. We expect significant differences between the two groups of students in the level of academic engagement and in the modality of self-regulated learning. The implications on the practical educational level of the study refer to the fact that the instructional system should be designed to support the academic engagement and to stimulate the identification of other learning modalities.

Involvement in civic and community activities is a core part of positive youth development. Adolescents involved in voluntary civic activities have greater academic engagement, enhanced well-being, less involvement in problem behaviors, and they are more likely to value connections to their community than those who are not involved. The current research examined involvement in school and community civic activities as well as religious youth groups among 8th and 9th graders (N=679, 61.7% female, 85.9% White) from small, rural schools in the Midwest U.S. and linked involvement to religiosity, well-being, problem behavior, academic engagement, and perceptions of parents and peers. Half of the adolescents in the sample reported involvement in civic activities or, more commonly, in religious youth groups. Adolescents who participated in religious youth groups reported more extracurriculars, less problem behavior, higher grades and motivation, and more support from parents and friends than adolescents who did not. The most frequently reported school civic activities were student council and Future Farmers of America, and 4-H was the most popular community civic activity. Those who were involved in school- and community-based civic activities reported more religiosity, academic engagement, and positive perceptions of parents and peers than uninvolved youth. The results support and extend research on rural youth by documenting civic activities across contexts and examining how involvement is associated with positive youth development.

In England, gender is currently a controversial issue, with debates in social and political spheres increasingly impacting educational policy. Simultaneously, scholarship on gender in Early Childhood Education (ECE) advocates more gender‐sensitive pedagogies to disrupt restrictive and essentialised views. We use Connell's principles of curricular justice to analyse gender's position in England's birth‐to‐five policies. Taking as the lynchpin of our analysis Connell's third principle, the historical production of equality, we trace gender's representation in 14 birth‐to‐five statutory and non‐statutory curriculum documents from 1996 to 2021, identifying the extent to which these curricula support practitioners to teach in just and equitable ways. A picture of curricular injustice becomes evident. Our review highlights how changes in the broader political system result in three shifts in gender's curricular positioning (defined as gender foundations; gender awareness; gender decline) that ultimately fail the needs of the least advantaged and inhibit children's preparation for democratic participation in society. The ideological (re)production of gender (in)justice in the curricula occurs, firstly, through limited references to gender, fluctuations in gender's use over time and gender's siloing in non‐statutory statements. Secondly, conceptual confusion, the use of binary constructs and a reliance on both legal non‐discrimination and an equal opportunity framing restrict gender justice. This review exposes the ways in which the reproduction of social power in the ECE curriculum reinforces gender inequalities, thus raising questions about the curriculum's suitability for supporting socially just, gender‐sensitive pedagogy in ECE. We conclude that now is the time for a renewal of curricular justice.