Curricula from the past, in the present and for the future?

Citation

Philippou S & Priestley M (2022) Curricula from the past, in the present and for the future?. Curriculum Journal, 33 (3), pp. 341-345. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.169

Abstract
First paragraph: Half of 2022 is already in the past, but with events which could fill an eternity: the COVID-19 pandemic and other potential outbreaks, intertwined economic and energy crises, and war against Ukraine which forced the world community to face anew geopolitical and national divisions once celebrated as dead (as in Fukuyama's (1992) proclamation of the end of history). All these events are a stark reminder of how the present is always-already in many ways shaped by the past; this then being a reminder of how futures are already shaped whilst remaining unforeseen and unpredictable. As unpredictability continues to surprise us, curriculum studies are yet again called upon to provide visions of (if not quick solutions for) the future. However, as many curriculum scholars know, this is a rather beguiling request: even the small number of recent events listed above, each of enormous historical gravity, renders visible how this is a world of multiple and quite different futures—literally worlds apart even within countries, despite global education visions. This issue's collection of papers are examples of taking up the curricular challenges that the present presents us with in different national contexts, from the USA, Chile and Japan to Norway, Spain, Portugal, the UK, including Wales, and Israel. At the same time, all papers reveal how researchers address and highlight the complexity which emerges from each of these contexts, especially as these are in constant conversation with trends and patterns of curriculum debates beyond them and internationally, but remain quite unique and divergent. The end of national curriculum history seems to be elusive and distant, if at all ever possible.

Keywords
Education

Journal
Curriculum Journal: Volume 33, Issue 3