Examining Education Reforms of India in the Matrix of Rights and Biopolitics

Three significant reforms were established at the turn of the century in India: the National Curriculum Framework of 2005, the National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education of 2009, and the Right to Education Act of 2009. All three reforms reflect a contradiction between the rights of citizens and the regulatory biopolitical inertia of the state. Indian State has undergone cyclical shifts in its orientation. In certain phases, rights became the fulcrum to guide policy and legal framework, and in other phases, the regulatory impulse of the state was at the center. The neoliberal turn of the 1990s marked a sharp shift in which the state left behind its welfare outlook and adopted a more regulatory structure. The rights-based agenda of the three reforms needs to be understood against the backdrop of the changing nature of the state. The three reforms stand apart from those instituted before and after, in that they were informed by a critique of the rights-based framework even while working within it. The three reforms and their social context provide an example of the tension between rights and biopolitics; the reforms emerged as a response to this tension. While proposing rights-based reforms in school education, the intent was much more ambitious, going beyond the immediate domain of education. Occurring in the middle of a neoliberal, market-driven discourse, these reforms critiqued the 21st-century state and pushed it to serve the role of a provider and not just a regulator.

The development of “Early Childhood Education & Care Curriculum Framework Implementation Scale” in Taiwan

Taiwan government consolidated the kindergarten and daycare systems in 2012, and launched a new national curriculum framework, Early Childhood Education & Care Curriculum Framework (ECECCF), as a guidance for quality early childhood education programs. Research has shown that the effects of a new educational program highly depended on the fidelity of its implementation. It has thus been suggested that the degree of implantation of a program needs be evaluated before conducting further program evaluation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to construct an Early Childhood Education Curriculum Framework Implementation Scale (ECECCF Implementation Scale) for Taiwanese preschool programs. 216 preschool classes in Taiwan were involved. The study consisted of two stages: In Stage 1, the exploratory factor analysis showed that the implementation of ECECCF could mostly be explained by four factors, and all the factors extracted had acceptable reliability and validity. In Stage 2, rubrics were constructed for each item and factor analysis was re-conducted, resulting in a 19-item scale of four factors (Awareness and Adjustment, Learning Centers Arrangement, Teaching Guidance and Curriculum Development). The reliability and validity tests shows that: (1) the final version of the ECECCF Implementation Scale is a valid and reliable instrument, explaining 62.9% of the total variance; (2) the criterion validity indicated that the ECECCF scale can not only be used for assessing the implementation of ECECCF, but also can be used for understanding teachers’ needs in instructional and operational curriculum for further professional development.

Medical student wellness in Canada: time for a national curriculum framework

There is substantial evidence showing that medical student wellness is a worsening problem in Canada. It is apparent that medical students’ wellness deteriorates throughout their training. Medical schools and their governing bodies are responding by integrating wellness into competency frameworks and accreditation standards through a combination of system- and individual-level approaches. System-level strategies that consider how policies, medical culture, and the “hidden curriculum” impact student wellness, are essential for reducing burnout prevalence and achieving optimal wellness outcomes. Individual-level initiatives such as wellness programming are widespread and more commonly used. These are often didactic, placing the onus on the student without addressing the learning environment. Despite significant progress, there is little programming consistency across schools or training levels. There is no wellness curriculum framework for Canadian undergraduate medical education that aligns with residency competencies. Creating such a framework would help align individual- and system-level initiatives and smooth the transition from medical school to residency. The framework would organize goals within relevant wellness domains, allow for local adaptability, consider basic learner needs, and be learner-informed. Physicians whose wellness has been supported throughout their training will positively contribute to the quality of patient care, work environments, and in sustaining a healthy Canadian population.

An undergraduate medical curriculum framework for providing care to transgender and gender diverse patients: A modified Delphi study

Introduction The lack of attention to transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people in undergraduate medical education (UME) is a point of concern, particularly among medical students. A project was undertaken to develop a UME curriculum framework for teaching the healthcare needs of TGD people. Methods Using a modified Delphi methodology, four rounds of surveys were presented to an expert stakeholder group that included content experts, generalist physicians, UME teaching faculty, and medical students. Questions covered what content should be taught, who should teach the content, and how much time should be dedicated for this teaching. Once the Delphi process was complete, feedback on the provisional framework was sought from members of the TGD community to ensure it represented their needs and perspectives. Results 71 panel members and 56 community members participated in the study. Core values included the scope of the framework, and topics such as inclusivity, and safety in practice and in teaching. The framework included terminology, epidemiology, medical and surgical treatment, mental health, sexual and reproductive health, and routine primary care. There was also guidance on who should teach, time to be allocated, and the learning environment. Discussion There is a clear need to train tomorrow’s doctors to provide competent and respectful healthcare services to and for TGD patients. Although local factors will likely shape the way in which this framework will be implemented in different contexts, this paper outlines a core UME-level curriculum framework for Canada and, potentially, for use in other parts of the world.

Physical education and health enhancing physical activity – a European perspective

This article reviews recent literature on the contribution of curriculum physical education to health-enhancing physical activity within the context of European countries. Recommended goals for student physical activity are discussed within a curriculum framework based on five ‘forms’ (concept, designed, implemented, results and effects). The study used a 'rapid reviewing' method, in which sources were identified and analysed using systematic reviewing techniques, but subsequent stages were adapted to facilitate flexible and practical interpretation. Results show that physical education lessons tend not to reach a putative 50% threshold of moderate-to-vigorous intensity. Given that the average time allocated for physical education in Europe is 100 minutes per week, strategies are needed to increase the intensity and duration of physical activity in lessons if they are to make a more meaningful ‘direct’ contribution to the European and WHO daily target of sixty minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity. The authors therefore consider the plausibility of introducing an 'Active Schools' concept, in which physical education lessons designed to equip students with the prerequisite knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values supportive of a physically active lifestyle are augmented by other school-based contexts which provide the opportunity to actually meet the recommended guidelines for physical activity participation.

The value evolution of the curriculum in the current context of changes

Its superior value-teleological, normative and axiological evolution reflects and constructively processes the interactive psychological and sociocultural reality, perfectible with concrete effects, realistically anticipated on the learners, as well as on the process itself. Restructuring the school curriculum (framework plans and curricula) is necessary to promote values-based on education, creativity, cognitive skills, volitional skills and action skills, basic knowledge and knowledge skills and abilities of direct use, in the profession, in society and focus the curriculum on the formation and development / diversification of key competences. The curricular review will place greater emphasis on the development of transversal competences, including digital ones, those on sustainable development and socio-emotional competences. The argument for the need to reconfigure the current learning process is to opt for a holistic, transdisciplinary and functional-pragmatic approach to learning outcomes.

Secondary Curriculum Literacy and Teacher Word-Knowledge: Further Findings from a Western Australian ITE Cohort Study

The Australian Government, in its Professional Standards for Teachers and Australian Curriculum framework, requires that all secondary teachers actively teach the specific literacy of their learning area. Yet achievement of that goal hinges on teachers having first acquired the pre-requisite literate competencies during their own schooling. There are reasons to doubt that this is the case for some graduate teachers, which means attempts to raise standards in schools are beset by a troubling circularity. Here we illustrate the problem with further findings from a Western Australian ITE Cohort Study (n=393), focussing this time on the word knowledge of secondary teaching graduates. Our analysis suggests that some secondary ITE students carry shortcomings from their own schooling that may hamper their ability to teach word knowledge or to self-correct. Current training and resources may thus have limited efficacy for some graduating teachers, placing limits on what can be achieved in schools. We consider the implications for literacy policies and for initial teacher education at secondary level.

Pioneer teachers: How far can individual teachers achieve agency within curriculum development?

Education reform requires the commitment and investment of teachers if it is to succeed. Recognising the importance of teacher engagement, some countries have made teacher agency a feature of their curricula. Wales has embraced the notion of teacher agency within the building of its new curriculum by creating a body of Pioneer teachers to shape its new curriculum framework. This paper considers the nature of teacher agency experienced by a group of these Pioneers working on the expressive arts area of the curriculum. It does so through an exploration of the ecological nature of teacher agency, as theorised by Emirbayer and Mische (1998), and it considers agency through a framework of different levels: the micro-level focuses on the individuals and their personal contributions; the macro-level considers Pioneers’ work at national level, liaising with teachers from across the country and taking responsibilityfor creating the curriculum; the meso-level refers to where the two former levels come together, i.e. the Pioneers’ work within their own institution, trialling the new curriculum. The evidence indicates that teacher agency was easier to achieve at micro-level and macro-level, than at meso-level. This paper suggests, therefore, that achieving teacher agency at institutional level is more complex and challenging than is the case at the other levels. Greater understanding and attention are, therefore, needed about how to achieve teacher agency in teachers’ different spheres of work, particularly when working at institutional level.