Formation of school subjects as curriculum content : patterns and structures
To show that curriculum content is always socially constructed and might be a result of struggling social forces giving way for different interpretations, interpretations that lean on different pol ...
The formation of a school subject and the nature of curriculum content: an analysis of liberal studies in Hong Kong
This essay explores the nature of the curriculum content of liberal studies—a core school subject in the new senior secondary curriculum in Hong Kong—with reference to the curriculum‐making processes entailed in the formation of that subject. The central thesis is that a school subject is introduced to schools and classrooms as a distinct representation of content embodied in curriculum materials, entailing a theory of content—a special way of selecting, organizing, and framing the content for social, cultural, educational, curricular, and pedagogical purposes. Knowing the content of a school subject thus entails knowing more than the content per se; it entails an understanding of the underlying theory of content, which is necessary for disclosing and realizing the educational potential embodied in the content.
Development of a Set of Principles to Guide a P-12 Syllabus Framework. A report to the Queensland Studies Authority.
The aim of this project is the development of a new design template for P-12 syllabi for 
Queensland schools. The project consists of an international literature review, a series of commissioned expert papers, and a review of recent developments in Queensland 
curriculum. The project reviews international and national literature on curriculum, 
school reform and improvement, and comparative policy contexts. The focus of this 
review is on the technical features of syllabus documents that contribute to "high 
quality/high equity" outcomes. It does not comment on ongoing debates over 
curriculum content in specific subject areas. 
Key issues discussed in this report include: 
• The technical form of the curriculum – the formal definitions, categories and 
taxonomies of the syllabus – have direct and indirect impacts upon teacher 
professionalism and student outcomes. 
• The syllabus offers a 'map' of the curriculum, but cannot prescribe the sum total 
of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment in the school or classroom. 
• School subjects are distinctive purpose-built and targeted units of study, 
constructed in response to different demands and challenges and towards 
educative ends. School subjects are the operational units for syllabi. 
• School subjects can have different and variable relationships to disciplinary 
knowledge and applied fields, depending on their aims, contents and 
developmental phases. 
• High quality/high equity education systems are characterised by a balance of 
"informed prescription" and "informed professionalism". 
• Informed prescription entails an economical syllabus that maps out essential 
knowledges, competences, skills, processes and experiences, parsimonious and 
appropriate testing systems for diagnostic and developmental purposes and 
systems’ accountability, and a strong systemic equity focus on the potential of 
all learners to meet high expectations and standards. 
Informed professionalism involves teacher autonomy to interpret the syllabus, 
with opportunities for local curriculum planning, rich professional resources and 
development activities, school and classroom-based assessment capacity, and 
professional capacity to adopt curriculum for teaching and learning of identified 
equity groups. 
• Each syllabus for a school subject can span the early, middle or senior learning 
phase, and thus be aligned with the distinctive educational philosophy of each 
phase. 
• Each syllabus would have guiding statements of philosophy, aims, recognition 
of distinctive learner cohorts and their needs, brief statements of essential 
expected learnings, related standards, and some details of approaches to 
assessment. It would be in language accessible to teachers, and it would be as 
brief and to the point as is possible and appropriate. 
• Essentials could be stated as blends of knowledge, behaviours, skills, 
competences, capacities, processes and experiences, depending on the subject, 
phase and field orientation that they relate to. 
• Standards, using a common nomenclature, would provide a vocabulary for 
teachers, students and parents to describe and discuss student achievement and 
results. 
• Syllabuses can include brief notes of assessment practices and strategies, 
appropriate to the subject and phase, to guide the development of systemic, 
school and classroom assessment and moderation (where appropriate). They 
indicate where systemic standardised testing programs and mandated moderated 
assessment are linked to essential learnings. 
• Foundational discipline and field knowledges, specific pedagogic strategies, 
curriculum and instructional adaptations for specific cohorts of students would 
be provided in adjunct, on-line resources - and not be part of the publicly 
accessible syllabus. 
A key axiom in all studies of policy, curriculum and instruction is that the official 
syllabus document cannot in itself change classroom practices and student achievement. 
The success and effectiveness of the proposed design in improving quality and equity 
will depend upon other settings of policy and practice at the system and school level. 
The proposed syllabus design will require various specific 'delivery standards' to 
effectively improve quality and equity of outcomes. These policy alignments will 
include: an inclusive, consultative and research-based syllabus development process; 
alignment with curriculum methods subjects in preservice education; teacher and 
administrative professional development in curriculum; rich and quality assured 
professional resources, available from multiple sources, as a way to support teachers in 
interpreting and developing local curriculum in relation to the syllabus.