About the centre
The Stirling Centre for Research into Curriculum Making, founded in October 2023, is led by Professor Mark Priestley and builds on the work of the previous Stirling Network for Curriculum Studies, established in 2016.
The Stirling Centre for Research into Curriculum Making (SCRCM) develops and undertakes original research into curriculum making, engages in knowledge exchange with policy makers and practitioners to develop the curriculum across education systems, and disseminates research through face-to-face events and webinars.
The Stirling Centre for Research into Curriculum Making, founded in October 2023, is led by Professor Mark Priestley and builds on the work of the previous Stirling Network for Curriculum Studies, established in 2016.
The notion of curriculum making is based upon the premise that curricula are constructed – made – across multiple sites of activity within education systems, and that curriculum can be studied as social practice. As a foundation for the Centre, the following definition of curriculum is adopted:
The multi-layered social practices, including content selection, infrastructure, pedagogy and assessment, through which education is structured, enacted and evaluated, with at least three dimensions:
This approach entails analysis of the ecology of curriculum making – the development of systemic understanding of how the different components of curriculum work together across education systems to enable the development of coherent programmes. Thus, the Centre develops research across the full panoply of activities which comprise curriculum making, from discourse formation, to policy framing, to practical curriculum making in various educational settings (schools, colleges, early years settings, HE, community/non-formal).
[1] Priestley, M., Philippou, S., Alvunger, D. & Soini, T. (2021). Curriculum Making: A conceptual framing. In: M. Priestley, D. Alvunger, S. Philippou. & T. Soini, Curriculum making in Europe: policy and practice within and across diverse contexts. Bingley: Emerald.
SCRCM has considerable expertise in a range of areas related to curriculum making, as well as across qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. At the centre of our work is Curriculum Making: Theory, Policy, Practice, with related specialities including:
If you are interested in being more involved with SCRCM and/or would like to be added to our mailing list to ensure you receive information and updates as soon as they are available, please contact us.
The Centre is led by Professor Mark Priestley. Other members of the management team are:
SCRCM organises various types of event, aimed at academics, practitioners and policy makers. These include a series of regular webinars, as well as larger scale face-to-face events held on the University campus.
Currently available events are as follows:
Topic | Speaker | Date and time | Location | Registration link |
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Curriculum Making and Teacher Agency | Professor Mark Priestley, University of Stirling, drawing upon his recent work on curriculum making |
Thursday 5 October 2023 16:00 - 17:30 |
Online | This webinar has now passed. |
Ensuring Curricular Justice for Students: Insights into Teaching Practices | Associate Professor Stewart Riddle from the University of South Queensland | Monday 6 November 2023 | Online | This webinar has now passed. |
From learning outcomes to curriculum: An educational approach | Professor Gert Biesta from the University of Edinburgh | Monday 15 January 2024, 16:00 - 17:30 | Online | This webinar has now passed. |
Educators' and children's meaning-making through shared play worlds |
Kristin Ungerberg, Majvor Dahlgren Levin and Martin Eneling, Department of Pedagogical Studies, Karlstad University |
Tuesday 13 February 2024 16:00 - 17:30 | Online | This webinar has now passed. |
STEAM on the rise: wild experiments in Scottish Teacher Education |
Isobel Finnie, Dr Laura Colucci-Gray, Dr Ramsey Affifi and Steve McLeister, University of Edinburgh |
Tuesday 27 February 2024 16:00 - 17:30 | Online | This webinar has now passed. |
Why are learners in Wales not choosing languages in secondary schools? |
Claire Gorrara and Lucy Jenkins, Cardiff University |
Tuesday 12 March 2024 16:00 - 17:30 | This webinar has now passed. | |
History Teachers as Curriculum-makers in Policy and Practice: quantitative insights from England and Scotland |
Joe Smith, University of Stirling, Richard Harris, University of Reading, and Katharine Burn, University of Oxford |
Tuesday 7 May 2024 16:00 - 17:30 |
Online | This webinar has now passed. |
How to use art as a provocation for cross-curricular engagement |
Liz Conacher, National Galleries of Scotland, and Natasha McMillan, University of Stirling |
Monday 10 June 2024 16:00 - 17:30 |
Online | This webinar has now passed. |
Saying the Unsayable: Asking the Big Questions of Curriculum for Excellence |
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Monday 2 September, 16:00 to 17:30 |
Online | This webinar has now passed. |
Changing High Stakes Assessment Systems: Traditions, Contradictions and Bear Traps | Prof Louise Hayward, University of Glasgow |
Tuesday 1 October 2024, 16:00 to 17:30 |
Online | This event has now passed. |
Discipline and perish? Disciplinarily in the 21st century | Prof Arthur Chapman, UCL/IoE |
Wednesday 13 November, 2024, 16:00 to 17:30 |
Online | Register for Discipline and perish webinar |
Facilitating and fostering collaborative design with and within the IB community | Pilar Quezzaire and Edlyn Chao, International Baccalaureate Organisation |
Monday 2 December, 16:00 to 17:30 |
Online | Register for facilitating and fostering collaborative design |
Topic | Speaker | Date and time | Location | How to attend |
---|---|---|---|---|
Decolonising the Curriculum – reflections on challenges and opportunities from academia, policy and practice | This face -to-face event will adopt a question panel format, and feature Professor Lizzie Rushton (chair, University of Stirling), Dr Haira Gandolfi (University of Cambridge), Professor Joao Paraskeva (University of Strathclyde), Nuzhat Uthmani (University of Stirling) and Melina Valdelievre (Education Scotland) |
Monday 27 November 16:00 - 18:00 |
Iris Murdoch Building, University of Stirling | This seminar has now passed. |
Responding to the Nature & Climate Emergency: voices from educational policy, practice, school leaders, and young people | Speaking at this event is Greg Mannion, Heena Dave, Sophia Georgescu, Lizzie Rushton (University of Stirling) and Jennifer Hutton (Dunblane Primary School). |
Tuesday 23 April 2024 16:00 - 18:00 |
Iris Murdoch Building, University of Stirling | This seminar has now passed. |
Children’s Agency and Curriculum Making | The speakers are Yana Manyukhina and Dominic Wyse, UCL. |
Tuesday 28 May 2024 16:00 to 18:00 |
Iris Murdoch Building, University of Stirling | This seminar has now passed. |
Education, the Arts and Climate Change | Georgia Rose Murray, Prof Lizzie Rushton, University of Stirling |
Thursday January 30 2025, 16:00 to 18:00 |
Pathfoot Building, University of Stirling | Register for the Education, the Arts and Climate Change seminar. |