Research Aim

This paper presents an analysis of curricula as governing documents from a curriculum theory perspective. Aspects of consistency between the overall goals, content, and grading criteria of the new Swedish curricula Lgr22 and Gy2011 (rev2021) are studied, based on the concept of curriculum coherence, in order to determine how general curriculum elements in parts 1 and 2 in the curriculum text relate to specific elements like grading criteria and subject and course plans (Sundberg, 2022).

Theoretical Framework

The question of the coherence of a curriculum becomes particularly relevant in the context of curriculum development that features repeated revisions and additional reforms that change parts of the curriculum framework based on varying intentions, views of knowledge, or approaches to learning and assessment—usually referred to as a “patchwork” curriculum.

In this paper, the focus is on the actual curriculum design, composition, and structure.

Curriculum researchers (Luke et al., 2012) refer to the textual construction of a curriculum governing document as its “technical form,” which can, to varying degrees, support or contradict the intentions or content. For example, a detailed curriculum that is prescribed centrally may still claim to advocate local interpretation.

It is argued in the paper that an analysis of curriculum coherence will inevitably touch on issues related to the governing effect that curricula have and how curriculum construction also guides the actual translation and use of the curriculum and of the subject and course plans in teaching (i.e., external coherence).

Research Design

An analytical framework for categorizing and classifying curriculum elements is presented, based on which different logics are identified for how they are linked to each other or to the goals, organization, content, or assessment elements of curricula, subject plans, and course syllabuses (so-called logics of alignment).

Expected Results

Curriculum-making is a complex interaction between different driving forces, with top-down, short-term, ad-hoc political ideas and initiatives; culvert organizations; bureaucratic docility; and the absence of interaction and trust between different levels and actors—among other factors—risking the creation of fragmented steering documents that lack coherence. Here, making different logics of alignment visible can be a tool for exposing gaps and contradictions that hinder the control power and the realization of the curricula. Comparative perspectives on other Nordic countries provide important points of reference for the analysis.

The paper strives to make a theoretical, conceptual, and methodological contribution to further develop research on the technical form of curricula in Nordic educational and curriculum theory research.

References

Luke, A., Woods, A., & Weir, K. (2012). Curriculum design, equity and the technical form of the curriculum. In A. Luke, A. Woods, & K. Weir (Eds.), Curriculum, syllabus design, and equity: A primer and model (pp. 6–39). Routledge.

Sundberg, D. (2022). Curriculum coherence: Exploring the intended and enacted curriculum in different schools. In N. Wahlström (Ed.), Equity, teaching practice and the curriculum: Exploring differences in access to knowledge (pp. 76–89). Routledge.