ABSTRACT
This chapter turns to the experience of students in relation to the curriculum, and the impact of the language of reform and improvement in this realm. We characterise children and young people in education as the consequential stakeholders who bear the brunt of the decisions of others upon what it is that they make, do and perform and the ways in which these actions are measured and assessed. We make the case for a deeper and more profound form of consultation and participation that enable the voices of students to be heard and heeded. In order to contextualise this discussion we first explore the many conceptualisations of curriculum as historically and recently understood. Having uncovered the complexity surrounding the definition of the term we inquire into ways that it can be examined through the perception of students within a specific context, the teaching of history, with reference to the possibility of transformation beyond the tinkerings of government policies. We see that curriculum matters are closely allied and related to those pedagogical practices of which students are acutely aware as they experience their schooling.
