ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 explores the question of what kind of theory can help understand and explain the effects and mechanisms of standards-based curriculum reforms. The different dimensions of transnational curriculum standardisation are critically highlighted and related to the Swedish case. The chapter focuses on how curriculum standardisation and assessment pressures are reshaping communication patterns and pedagogical repertoires in the classroom. By exploring the relationship between classroom discourse and performance standards in terms of knowledge requirements, the chapter analyses how teachers and students are transforming and translating curriculum requirements into actual teaching and learning activities. It also analyses the types of discourses that inform how curriculum requirements are communicated to students and how they reshape assessment practices.
