Curricular Choices Research Articles

Complications of the Righteous: Activist Teaching and the New Teacher

Taken from a larger, longitudinal multi-case study examining the decisions and choices (pedagogically and professionally) of early career social studies teachers this article analyzes and describes a single case study using the theoretical frameworks of Teaching Like an Activist and The Pedagogy of Teacher Activism. This article describes the pedagogical and curricular choices Ms. Jane, the teacher, makes during her first two years of teaching middle school. Initially, she identified as a social justice educator, but she shifted over the course of the study later identifying as an activist educator as she became more involved in political and social activism in opposition to the presidency of Donald Trump. Both identities impact how she taught and how she engaged professionally at her school site.

“You Never Told Me”: The Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) of Israel Education

Although there have been many studies describing the practice of Israel education, few, if any, have explored the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of this subject matter—what teachers know about how best to teach it. In this phenomenological study, 20 teachers in English-speaking Jewish high school settings in the USA, Israel, Australia, and Canada were interviewed to describe the components of their PCK. This research demonstrates that disappointment in the idealization of Israel by previous generations has impacted how today’s Israel educators in Jewish high schools understand the purposes of their discipline, the curricular choices they make, the instructional strategies they employ, and the context in which they teach. Addressing this unique phenomenon, which has come to be known by the slogan “you never told me,” has become a guiding instructional principle in the field as teachers about Israel prepare their students to maintain their Jewish commitments while transitioning from an immersive Jewish learning environment to becoming nuanced participants in conversations concerning Israel on college and university campuses. In addition to contributing to limited discourse on the teacher knowledge of Israel educators to improve the practice of the field, the findings of this paper emphasize the need for a pedagogy for complex Israel education deepening nuance and commitment to Israel. On the basis of the findings, we propose a model with eight design principles for how to do Israel education effectively in Jewish education frameworks, both formal and informal.

Future curriculum‐makers: The role of professional experience placements as sites of learning about curriculum‐making for preservice teachers

AbstractThe 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.

Navigating Tensions in Designing a Curriculum That Prepares Preservice Teachers for School-Based Learning

A long-standing concern in teacher education is the variability in the quality of practicum experiences afforded to preservice teachers. Although some variability is due to their personal attributes, preservice teachers often find it difficult to connect theoretical insights to teachers’ classroom practices. These challenges can be exacerbated when teachers do not explain the reasoning for what they do and why. School closures during the pandemic provided South African teacher educators with an opportunity to address this concern. We participated in developing a national online module that prepares preservice teachers for school-based learning through guided lesson study. This article adopts a self-study approach to account for the curriculum choices in developing this module. Three tensions needed consideration: portraying teaching as an individualised pursuit and/or a social practice, focusing on generic and/or specialised pedagogies, and focusing on the tacit and/or explicit reasoning that teachers do. We account for how we worked within and between these tensions. A module of this nature potentially enhances school-based learning by making the reasoning of teachers explicit to preservice teachers. To achieve this potential and to advance work-integrated learning as a scholarship, the conceptual underpinnings of the module and its curriculum design must be open to reflection and scrutiny.

Getting back to the real world

Today, STEM and/or STEAM frameworks dominate the discourse around science education and what constitutes a ‘scientific’ literacy. While no one definition prevails in the literature, this literacy is often defined in the context of a current national concerns and focuses largely on Eurocentric (western) models of science and/ or scientific knowledge in terms of concepts, models, theories, or principles. As it currently stands, the term STEM is mostly used when addressing educational policy and curriculum choices in schools, aimed at improving competitiveness in science and technology with implications for workforce and economic development (often with some missing voices from women and Indigenous communities). Without an important socio-cultural critique, education of this kind can maintain and promote hegemonic beliefs and values while ignoring collateral problems relating to scientific or technological development: many of which have been linked to social and environmental injustice. In this paper, I offer three perspectives in an effort to decentre the discourse around the STEM movement. Using the overlapping themes of biocultural diversity, two-eyed seeing and guided inquiry, I offer suggestions on how to reframe science education as an interdisciplinary practice centred on student and community needs. In these ways, science education can ‘get back to the real world’ and promote creative approaches to science literacy, problem solving and cultural inquiry.

Challenging the Status Quo in Secondary Literature Classrooms: A review of Challenging Traditional Classroom Spaces with YA Literature: Students in Community as Course Co‐designers

AbstractThis paper reviews the book Challenging Traditional Classroom Spaces with YA Literature: Students in Community as Course Co‐Designers by Ricki Ginsberg (2022). Published amid increasingly contentious censoring of teachers' autonomy and students' rights to read in many districts across the United States, this book is a timely call for educators to rethink traditional curriculum choices and pedagogical approaches in the secondary literature classroom. Ginsberg makes a strong case for privileging engaging and relevant texts utilizing YA literature and centering students and their voices in communities of practice in the classroom. She offers a wide range of approaches to make this book relevant for teachers across the spectrum of autonomy, including impactful additions to existing curriculum for those in more constrained environments and a blueprint for a stand‐alone YA literature course for those with more flexibility. Geared toward an audience of secondary literature teachers with many practical pedagogical considerations and suggestions, the solid theoretical base makes this book a useful read for literacy researchers and administrators interested in promoting student‐centered pedagogical methods, leveraging meaningful communities of practice in classroom settings, and reaping the benefits of YA literature with secondary students.

Knowledge and power in a girls’ madrasa in India: a critical analysis of textbook and curriculum

ABSTRACTArticles 28 and 30 of the Indian Constitution (1950) guarantee the right of religious minorities to establish their educational institutions and impart religious education. Analysing the curriculum, textbooks, and pedagogical practices of one such minority-run institution for girls makes it possible for us to see how contemporary Muslims in India transmit religious teaching today in ways that showcase some legacies of the colonial past but also fashion new ways of being and becoming in a rapidly changing and westernising 21st-century environment. This argument is more nuanced than stereotypes that pervade the mainstream media and public sphere about the static, moribund and irrelevant nature of Islamic education in the modern world. Analysing three recurring themes in textbooks and pedagogical practices of a girls’ madrasa located in Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India, this article illustrates how Islam is interpreted, debated, and adapted to contemporary reality by Indian Muslims in a specific educational setting, in a larger political context where they are an embattled minority. The article argues that textbook knowledge and choice of curriculum influence the process of socialisation and identity formation in girls. This article explores the self-perception of the Muslim community in India through the medium of textbooks and curriculum in a community-run school.

Differences in Learning Effectiveness Across Management Learning Environments: A Cognitive Load Theory Perspective

The extant literature indicates that blended learning leads to better outcomes compared to traditional lectures in management education. However, the working memory, which processes all incoming information, can be assumed to already work at capacity in traditional lectures. As blended environments cannot extend this capacity, they can only improve learning effectiveness if they can influence the mechanics underlying the working memory. Drawing on cognitive load theory from educational psychology, we posit that blended learning, by using technology as a differentiator, provides instructional designers with additional options and tools. When utilized effectively, these choices can reduce learners’ cognitive load related to the design and increase cognitive load related to learning. Our assumptions are based on a case study with two different learning formats, including a blended environment that actively integrates technologies into the curriculum. Empirical evidence supports our hypotheses. We contribute to educational technology research in management education by explicitly considering the mechanics of the cognitive system and the effects of instructional design, curriculum choice, and related technology use. Our results suggest that blended environments can improve learning effectiveness if technologies are well integrated into curricula. Educational technologies, thus, provide entirely new opportunities for management educators but also require faculty development.

Composing Baldwin’s Joyful Song

Music lives and breathes through the spaces of much of James Baldwin’s oeuvre. This article introduces a course that features Baldwin’s musical literature and teaches students to compose music inspired by their newfound knowledge of Baldwin. The course, entitled “James Baldwin’s Song,” was taught in the department of Africana Studies at Williams College in fall 2021. It guided students to listen to Baldwin in a different way—through a musical lens and by relating Baldwin’s wisdom to their own lives. This article takes readers behind the scenes as it shares some of the curricular choices that guided the course and student insights gleaned from it. Though students heard many things in Baldwin’s musical oeuvre, two ideas sang out most clearly: that the blues was not just music but was also a way of living, and that joy differed from happiness. Accordingly, the second half of this article illustrates these key concepts as featured in original songs from the professor and student co-authors.

Teacher Round Table

Study and Scrutiny has focused on the publication of critical and empirical studies surrounding the scholarship and critical merits of Young Adult Literature. Because other journals provide a space for pedagogical practices concerning YA, the editors have intentionally shied away from explaining to teachers how to teach a particular title in a particular way. Still, the intention of the journal has been, in part, to support the learning of secondary students as readers and the classroom practices of their teachers. Teacher Round Table hopes to serve as a space to open the conversation surrounding YA literature, its critical merits, and ways that the research might serve teachers as they make curriculum choices about both texts and strategies. The idea is to bring teachers, as intellectuals, into conversation surrounding the scholarship of a featured study. For this round table, five secondary teachers joined Shelly Unsicker-Durham via Zoom to focus on Ashely Dallacqua’s article “Reading When the World Is on Fire: Teaching with Comics and Other Multimodal Text Sets” from S & S Issue: 6.1. Jason DeHart, special editor, invited three of his Tennessee colleagues and Shelly invited two of hers from Oklahoma, for a conversation that included graphic novels, classroom instruction, and censorship. Words and images provided by the teachers, along with the following conversation, have been edited for clarity, style, and organization.

Native Students in Library and Information Science Education, 1990–2019: Past Trends and Implications for Future Advancement

Abstract: In this longitudinal study, the authors explored institutional-level factors that may have contributed to the success of Native students in graduate library and information science (LIS) programs from 1990 to 2019. They used a mixed-methods design: first, they assessed patterns of participation of Native students in LIS for that period; next, they identified the LIS programs that graduated the most Native students and investigated them in depth using a case-study approach. The authors utilized data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE). They found that the low participation of Native students in LIS replicated overall trends in the participation of Native students in graduate education in nontribal establishments. They also found that the low participation of Native students remained a major historical trend characterizing the participation of Native students in LIS. This study suggests that institutional factors contributing to the success of Native students in LIS include effective recruitment, financial aid, and the assurance of their continuous enrollment and graduation via cohort learning, mentorship, flexibility of curriculum choices, and practical experiences. Substantively, this study contributes to the understanding of factors affecting the participation of Native students in graduate education and serves as a foundation for further research into factors affecting Native students' success in nontribal colleges. Methodologically, it offers a model replicable for similar investigations in other fields.

Family socioeconomic status and sibling correlations in upper secondary education. An empirical analysis of educational inequalities in Italy.

The study examines the educational inequalities in upper secondary education in Italy, with a focus on the vertical dimension of school enrolment and the horizontal dimension of track and curriculum choice. To measure the importance of family background, we use the estimation of sibling correlations, which has seldom been used in the analysis of track choice in upper secondary education. Using data from the Italian Labor Force Survey 2005-2020 (ILFS), which includes detailed information on household characteristics such as the gender composition of siblings and parental education and occupational status, we find that around half of the variation in the probability of attending upper secondary school in Italy is related to the family of origin. We also show that comparing sibling correlations on binary outcomes should be complemented by additional statistics, such as variances at the individual and family levels and proportions of enrolled sibling pairs. For upper secondary school enrolment, advantaged families have a relatively lower sibling correlation due to minor variations at both individual and family levels. However, in terms of track choice, the sibling correlation is relatively higher for enrolment in the academic track compared to the technical and vocational tracks. Additionally, with respect to the attendance of science/technical curricula within each track, the results indicate a lower sibling correlation for the academic track than for the other two tracks, which suggests that individual characteristics have a greater impact than family background when these outcomes are considered.

Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage And Formal Education: Comparison of Policies Between Türkiye And Flanders (Belgium)

The 2003 UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage introduces a set of interrelated measures among which education is an intersection point. Since education is crucial to the transmission of intangible cultural heritage (ICH), the States Parties have focused their attention on connecting their activities to the education sector in recent years, with formal education making up the greater part of the efforts. Belgium and Türkiye both ratified the Convention in 2006 and education ministries in both countries or parts in it seem to have concentrated on secondary education (12-18 years old) to raise awareness of the meaning and importance of safeguarding ICH. The purpose of this paper is to compare and evaluate the Flemish and Turkish formal education systems at the secondary education level regarding the implementation of the Convention. Therefore, this qualitative research is based on the investigation of the policy texts and curriculum (mainly in Dutch and Turkish) that are explicitly or implicitly connected to the presence of ICH in the education systems of both cases. From this perspective, it takes the ratification of the Convention by both countries as its point of departure and presents three levels of discussion. First, in order to comprehend the present context wherein potential connections between ICH and education are established, the overall policy of Flanders and Türkiye is briefly outlined. Second, the discussion is directed to the implications these policy choices might raise. In the final section, the frame of discussion is further narrowed to the level of curricular choices. It can be stated that the analysis of the documents revolved around the implications of centrality (Türkiye) and relative autonomy (Flanders) to mobilize ICH in education. While in Türkiye, the course Folk Culture in secondary education was initiated on the national level as a direct response to the Convention, in Flanders, this safeguarding perspective did not seem to have permeated educational policy processes. However, the Flemish Government has tolerated an open curriculum framework that seems beneficial for the inclusion of relevant content on a regional or local level. Considering achieving connections with its specific teaching context, in both cases, attention has to be drawn to the role of teacher agency. It can be stated that teachers are in need of a balance between sufficient support (capacity building, instruction manuals, didactic suggestions, explicit references to ICH) and the autonomy to execute (open curricula, professional freedom).

An Educational Philosophy Perspective On Teaching in Contemporary Curriculum Development

Current research supports the significance of critical consciousness development in the educational process. The research on reflective participatory learning and critical consciousness to foster critical consciousness in higher education may be far superior, notwithstanding a few shortcomings. More research is needed to determine the nature of critical consciousness in the higher education curriculum's philosophy of education and the best ways to support these students' vital development of consciousness. The critical consciousness technique was used in this investigation, and critical consciousness as a theoretical paradigm in education philosophy seeks to address multi-systemic oppression. All educational initiatives, including curricular decisions are grounded on philosophy. Critical consciousness encourages educators and students to consider other identities' viewpoints when reading and evaluating texts. It extends the goal of education to a more excellent social environment; this content critique and analysis method humanizes the learning process. Philosophy looks for and makes visible the good that all people should pursue and focus their deliberate education toward. In philosophy, the curriculum is prescriptive since it specifies the broad guidelines, courses, and disciplines that should be completed to earn a particular grade or standard. Like philosophy, the curriculum is normative and has guiding ideas and theories. Philosophy becomes a benchmark by which to evaluate the objectives, curriculum choices, and education delivery methods. Curriculum must be understood that they are constantly faced with making decisions about curricula and that philosophy plays a significant role in the decision-making process.

Toward asset-based LatCrit pedagogies in STEM: centering Latine students’ strengths to reimagine STEM teaching and practice

Latine students continue to persist in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields despite the numerous obstacles in place that stifle their academic potential and contributions. Instead of fostering the strengths Latine students possess that help them succeed despite these obstacles, the field of STEM education has traditionally examined these students’ experiences and challenges through a deficit lens. Deficit perspectives posit that any existing disparities in educational outcomes in STEM for Latine students are a product of the students’ lack of interest in STEM fields, poor academic preparation and/or motivation, among other ‘faults.’ In this manner, this deficit approach absolves educators, educational institutions, administrators, and researchers from any responsibility in mediating the disparate outcomes and negates the roles that outdated pedagogical practices, structural racism, discrimination and disciplinary bias have in limiting Latine students’ success in STEM. These deficit-understandings of these inequities are pervasive in all aspects of STEM education, guiding curricular choices, pedagogical approaches, assessment designs, interventions and even how STEM fields define knowledge and success. To counter these harmful constructions, this article discusses how STEM educators can draw on Latino Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) and Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) epistemologies to foster learning ecologies that draw on Latine students’ cultural strengths rather than deficits. To this end, this article introduces LatCrit and CCW frameworks in the context of STEM education, and combines them to propose an asset-based LatCrit pedagogical approach to STEM curriculum design and teaching. It also contributes guiding questions and application examples STEM educators can reference to advance asset-based LatCrit pedagogical approaches that promote justice and equity within STEM classrooms and beyond. Contributing to this underdeveloped line of scholarship in the field of STEM, we apply these critical frames to help educators (re)imagine postsecondary STEM pedagogies and reforms around the wealth of skills, dispositions, and cultural practices that Latine students possess.

Curriculum Choices for Refugees: What UNRWA’s History Can Tell Us about the Potential of UN Education Programs to Address Refugees’ ‘Unknowable Futures’

Abstract Quality education can help refugees navigate their ‘unknowable futures’. Yet, the potential of many education programs to fulfil this promise is shaped by the varied and at times, conflicting interests inherent in aid policy and practice. This article explores these tensions through a historical examination of UNRWA’s education program in the wake of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. I show how an embedded state-centric approach to policy limited the UN’s influence over the education it provided to Palestine refugees. This manifested through a narrow focus on access to education, and refugees’ ability to get jobs, at the expense of education’s social and political roles. I argue that this case has wider resonance for understanding the institutional dynamics of global refugee education policies and points to the need for a more nuanced understanding of claims by aid agencies that education necessarily helps refugees navigate their unknowable futures.

Implementation of Independent Learning Curriculum in the Learning of Islamic Religious Education at SMAN 3 Batusangkar

Freedom to learn is one of the alternative curriculum choices chosen by the education unit. The independent learning curriculum provides leeway and convenience for educators to implement quality and in-depth learning, according to what students need. The most important thing in this curriculum is to provide a place and freedom for students to develop the abilities that students have in order to get the desired educational achievements. This article was made intending to find out the way PAI teachers do in implementing the independent learning curriculum. This research was conducted at SMAN 3 Batusangkar, with the research target of PAI subject teachers. The researcher uses a descriptive qualitative method with a field study approach. The techniques used to collect data in this study are observation, interviews, and reviewing relevant articles in the direction of the study being studied. This research resulted in PAI teachers planning independent learning curriculum learning, carrying out the learning process by applying the MERDEKA path, and PAI teachers conducting learning evaluations. Therefore, it can be concluded that the implementation and application of the independent learning curriculum in PAI learning is going well and hopes to achieve national education goals.

Learning in emergencies contexts: From the building of the concept to multifaced actions in the field

The article is structured into five parts. The first part explains the concept of education in emergencies (EiE) and highlights the challenge of applying it in countries with a fragile education system, particularly in Africa. The second part emphasizes the humanitarian foundation of EiE and recognizes the efforts of international organizations and United Nations agencies in promoting and developing the sector. The third part discusses the quality aspects of EiE, while the fourth part explores curricular choices and potential innovations. Collaboration between national authorities and international organizations is essential for progress in the field, and the choice of language of instruction can be a contentious issue. Finally, the fifth part briefly summarizes the various contributions to the special issue and draws some concluding remarks.

Factors for enabling effective student learning within English colleges: the case of computing

ABSTRACT The development of computing as a subject area and the skills gaps present in society has placed an increased emphasis on the teaching of computing and what practices enable effective student learning. Within England, colleges have been described as pivotal in addressing these skills gaps, but there is a lack of computing education research within a college setting. This paper therefore aims to answer the following research question: How are computing educators within English colleges enabling effective student learning for computing? Through conducting 24 semi-structured interviews with computing educators from 13 English colleges, six themes were identified which include having staff who care, building a positive relationship with students, developing student soft skills, challenging current practice, putting an emphasis on students, and other teaching tips. This paper augments findings of good practice that have been found in other educational settings such as the use of unplugged activities, flipped learning, and pair programming, but in the unique context of teaching computing within English colleges. Furthermore, this paper more explicitly contributes to knowledge and practice through detailing how a focus on student needs is deemed more important for enabling effective student learning for computing than the choice of curriculum or available resources.

Decolonising and transforming curricula for teaching linguistics and language in South Africa: Taking stock and charting the way forward

The #RhodesMustFall (RMF) protests at South African universities (2015–2018) were the publicly visible manifestation of deep epistemic problems in the higher education (HE) sector, particularly around questions of whose knowledges are validated and whether these are reflective of students’ lived realities. This exploratory research attempted a snapshot of the state of curriculum transformation of the linguistic language disciplines in South Africa and to identify areas that require more attention. The authors focus on curriculum underpinning the teaching of linguistics and language-related disciplines. The study takes place at HE institutions in South Africa against the backdrop of substantial academic and public engagement around epistemic access in the HE sector. The authors used an anonymous questionnaire distributed among a purposive sample of 32 HE academics within the linguistics and language studies disciplines to elicit views around university curriculum transformation and decolonisation with particular focus on linguistic language disciplines curricula. Generally, practitioners indicate that there have been substantial changes in the disciplines over the past 10 years. There have also been notable achievements with respect to building broad curricula that are responsive to student needs and which balance the need to equip students to engage in global conversations while also being embedded in the contextual realities of South Africa, the African continent and students’ lived experiences.Contribution: The authors conclude that although transformation has progressed considerably in key areas, the representativity of languages and theoretical approaches remain areas for development. The authors also highlight how disciplinary curricular choices are value-driven and that contestations around which values are to be validated may inhibit curricular transformation. In these contexts, individual agency around curricular choices is important.