This article is concerned with theorizing a curricular response to what has become known in Australia as the "history wars" (Macintyre & Clark, 2003). The central debate in the history wars is over the representation of the colonization of Australia. Because History curriculum serves as an apparatus for the social (re)production of national…

The aim of this article is to explore, through the case of the official Israeli state curriculum, how the educational system is affected by social changes and how it responds to them, and to suggest curricular directions that go along with the new social reality that has emerged in Israel during the past decade. We offer a conceptual-theoretical…

Countries everywhere are turning to education in the quest for competitive edge in the global economy. How to attain the high skills needed in new reformed workplaces is a preoccupation that can be observed across developed countries. In this widening discourse of high skills and competitiveness, the U.S. skills production model is being seen as…

Against the backdrop of growing conflicts in Israeli society and concerns about its democratic character, the current curriculum guidelines and official textbook for civic education in Israel were set to offer a more inclusive civic education that would stress ideas such as pluralistic and democratic citizenship. However, this curriculum does not…

This article looks at the changing status of narrative in classroom history and the ways in which narrative is introduced in history classes at Key Stage 3 (ages 11-14) in England. It includes the views of departmental heads responsible for the history curriculum and other history teachers on the place of narrative in the history curriculum as…

This article explores the central role that description of experience, on the part of both teacher and students, plays in reflective practice. In particular, it highlights the power of students' description of their own learning as revealed to teachers in dialogue, a process I call "descriptive feedback." Descriptive feedback is neither…

This article presents the results of an ethnographic case study of an Israeli Arab middle school whose staff and students are Arab Israelis from the Moslem, Druze, and Christian population sectors. Against the Israeli backdrop of multiculturalism, political tensions, and terrorism, this school has created a multi-faceted curriculum for teaching…

The use of reform-based curricula is one possible avenue for the widespread implementation of mathematics education reform. In this article, we present two urban elementary teachers' "models of curriculum use" that describe how each teacher used a reform-oriented mathematics curriculum. In particular, we examine when and how the teachers made…

Drawing on case studies of three elementary school teachers in a diverse urban school setting in Texas, the author explores the varied ways teachers actively read accountability-related curriculum policies and then respond to these policies. Rooted in classroom observations and extensive teacher interviews, the author examines issues of teacher…

This paper explores the issue of culturally responsive music curriculum content in the context of a music course that I taught on three occasions for Nunavut Arctic College's Teacher Education Program (NTEP). The 19 Inuit students who attended the course were working toward achieving certification for teaching in Nunavut schools. One of the…

The purpose of this qualitative investigation was to explore the learning of six in-service U.S. teachers who engaged in a cross-cultural learning experience during the summer of 2001. The teachers were enrolled in a graduate seminar conducted in English and entitled "Literacy Across Languages and Cultures." Cindy (the first author of this…

This article examines the origins, uses, and effects of the rhetorical construct of "work" in the Montessori method. Grounded in analysis of classroom interactions in a Montessori primary (3-6-year-olds) classroom, I argue that Montessori's conception of work substantially revises prevailing assumptions about the nature of childhood, the roles of…

Teachers must gauge students' understandings and confusions. Yet most research about teacher thinking neglects teachers' ideas about confusion and students' perspectives about their interactions with their teacher when they are confused. This study examines two high school English teachers' and six of their students' thinking about confusion,…

Every way of thinking is both premised on and generative of a way of naming that reflects particular underlying convictions. Over the last 15 years, a way of thinking has reemerged that strives to reposition students in educational research and reform. Best documented in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States, this way of thinking is…

This article investigates issues of teacher authority and student initiations in a classroom-based social action curriculum project. A teacher (the first author of this article) and his fifth-grade, African-American students conceptualized, designed, and carried out a seven-month-long integrated curriculum and campaign to lobby for a sorely needed…