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This chapter presents five differentiated models of curriculum, each designed with templates created from learning theories. The discipline of distributed leadership is chosen to develop a cognition-based curriculum, a behavior-based curriculum, a performance-based curriculum, a values-based curriculum, and collectively arranged into a competency-based curriculum. The research literature frames the attributes of a competency-based curriculum on psychological competence.

In this chapter, curricula are developed to demonstrate the process of adapting theories of learning, instruction, and environment into design templates with which to differentiate the dimensions and components of a curriculum. In these curricula, multiple conceptual frameworks are employed to translate the content and structure of the discipline into instructional objectives, instructional engagement, instructional experience, and instructional environment to align the instructional processes with the intended learning. For these demonstrations, the discipline of organizational leadership is chosen due to the multidimensional structure of this discipline and the opportunities it presents to differentiate the curriculum and learning. Each component of the curriculum adapts an appropriate framework to align and interconnect the instructional processes into an optimized learning experience. The result is curricula that have a coherent flow horizontally across the components for each outcome as well as interconnectedness vertically between the outcomes. This approach creates coherence, alignment, and interconnectedness to the curricula and order to the learning process for the learners.

This methodology is applied to design the curriculum for five instructional modules. Module 1 focuses on dualistic thinking developed through a cognition-based curriculum. Module 2 presents a multiplistic learning experience through a behavior-based curriculum. Module 3 presents relativistic learning through a performance-based curriculum. Module 4 delivers complex learning through a values-based curriculum. Module 5 compiles these four modules into a competency-based curriculum model.

Each of these modules employs a unique set of theories to configure the components of the curricula to reflect the structure of each discipline. The use of each theory is explained and demonstrated in the design process.

Bruno Latour, one of the architects of actor-network theory, has now enfolded this approach within a larger project, An Inquiry into Modes of Existence – AIME. Framed as an empirical inquiry into the ontological and epistemological conditions of modernity, Latour argues for a radical shift in how “objective truth,” “scientific fact,” and “meaning” are established within the world. In this chapter, I draw on several elements of AIME to illustrate how Latour’s ontology, building on, augmenting and responding to criticisms of actor-network theory, can be used to explore higher education, focussing on one episode derived from a larger ethnography of medical education.

This paper deals with two types of educational reform related to teaching and learning the traditional school subject of social studies. First, we consider the importance of teaching about controversial issues by examining the impact of Hurricane Katrina, the record-setting, natural disaster, which struck the Gulf Coast of the United States in late August 2005. Using this episode as their foundation, the authors demonstrate how the common practice of avoiding controversy within the social studies arena can be addressed. Since Katrina represents a topic for which no warrant exists within state standards for teaching the subject, it can be considered a true “teachable moment”. Second, we analyze a case study involving the use of technology to spark discussion relative to the issues of race and class tied to Katrina, primarily for the two-year period after the hurricane struck. While the use of digital technology has been slow to gain popularity in the field of social studies, the authors use the case study to demonstrate how it can be utilized to generate democratic dialogue and civic engagement.

Teacher education programmes are critical in developing pre-service teachers’ competencies during the apprenticeship phase (Lim et al., 2010), whereas there is evidence indicating that teacher education programmes depend on curriculum leadership (Robinson et al., 2008). The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which curriculum leaders enact their curriculum leadership to enhance teacher education programmes in a context of a normal university in Mainland China.

In this paper, three groups of curriculum leaders, from university, faculty and classroom level, respectively, are interviewed.

This study highlights the significance of curriculum leadership in teacher education programmes enhancement in China, particularly the significant impacts from curriculum leaders’ involvement on the programme processes of planning, implementation and evaluation.

Implications for research include a conceptualization of curriculum leadership in teacher education and pre-service teachers’ training in China, and a theoretical integration of curriculum leadership and the enhancement of teacher education programmes.

Implications for practice regard to restructuring curriculum leadership system and informing curriculum leadership practices, not only in Asian countries, but might be able to shed light on the curriculum leadership development in a range of educational contexts either similar to or different from that of Mainland China. This study thus would contribute to several areas of research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how Robbins ES has sustained high academic performance over almost 20 years despite several changes in principals.

The paper analyzed longitudinal data based on: state-level academic and demographic data; two earlier studies of the school; and recent interviews with teachers, the principal, and parent leaders.

The analyses of these longitudinal data revealed four ongoing factors were responsible for sustained academic performance: high expectations, distributed leadership, collective responsibility for student performance, and data-based decision making. However, challenges that persistently confront Robbins staff include limited resources (e.g. technology and library materials), high mobility rate, and some cases of unsupportive parents.

This study adds to understanding how high-need urban schools can sustain high academic performance in spite of changes in principals, shifting community demographics, and high student mobility.

In this chapter, the authors discuss the process of embedding experiential learning in a required ethics and diversity course (ED200). The course is a model of humanistic education in which students develop disciplinary-based methodological expertise while also drawing on cross-disciplinary, inclusive, problem-solving skills. The authors suggest that in a course that challenges students to think about their lives in community, engagement with that community plays a critical role in humanizing the learning experience. This pedagogical emphasis on experiential learning, instantiated as community engagement, unites the foci of ethics and diversity through students’ practical application of and reflection on their experiences to enhance ethical and cultural self-awareness. In the process, it also fosters a desire for participatory and justice-oriented citizenship (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004). In what follows, the authors provide a history of the development of ED200. The authors then justify the inclusion of experiential learning in the course from theoretical and practical perspectives: Why is it valuable to include experiential learning in this course and how does it advance the goal of developing critically engaged citizens through improving ethical reasoning skills and actionable understanding of diversity? Last, the authors detail positive impacts and implementation challenges and indicate next steps for continued development.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the state of information literacy (IL) education in library schools in Africa. Principally, to understand how prepared the library schools are to take the lead by integrating IL courses into their school curricula.

The survey was carried out in two parts: first, the researcher conducted a survey of web sites maintained by library schools in Africa to identify the IL course offered and also to analyze the course contents. That was followed by sending an e‐mail message containing three research questions to library and information science (LIS) faculty members to ascertain the availability of IL courses in their curricula.

Results from the study revealed that, presently, only a few library schools offer the course IL as a stand‐alone course in their curricula. Many library schools have not yet incorporated “IL” as a stand‐alone course in their LIS curricula, rather, it is briefly discussed as a topic in related courses. The reason being that the LIS departments lack the technological facilities and qualified personnel to teach the course “IL.” Although not all the library schools in Africa were examined due to language barrier, more than 60 library schools were investigated, among them 20 institutions were found offering IL courses or a related area.

The researcher could not examine all the library schools in Africa due to language barriers, as many of the African countries have French as their official language and others Portuguese.

The results from the study reported in this paper will provide important data and insight into the current state of IL education in African library schools, and generate suggestions for educators and policy makers developing and including “IL” as a stand‐alone course in the LIS curriculum.

Ask what is meant by ‘Distributed Information Processing’ (DIP) and you are likely to receive as many varied answers as there are respondents. Depending on their background and experience, they may refer to such matters as distributed computing, communications networks, clustered mini‐computers, office automation, local area networks, personal computers; the list is virtually endless.