Curriculum Reform,with Particular Reference to Primary Literacy,in Contemporary English and Norwegian Official Documents

This paper explores similarities and differences in recent curriculum reform in England and Norway, focusing particularly on literacy. The main database consists of the official curriculum policy texts produced in both countries. Literacy is the major focus of the paper and a critical account is offered of current literacy policy in both countries by comparing the perspectives, values, and assumptions built into official texts. The paper begins by explaining and comparing the format of the reformed curricula in England and Norway, and by pointing to the impetus for change in both cases. It then goes on to analyse the various conceptions of literacy underpinning official literacy curriculum with reference to functional literacy, cultural literacy and critical literacy. It demonstrates how curriculum policy, and, more specifically, literacy policy is used as a vehicle for social control and reproduction and it concludes that differences in the nature of official policy in both countries can be explained with reference to the origin and impetus for change in the first place, and the extent to which the voice of the education establishment was heeded or silenced.