ABSTRACT
In this chapter we get a feel for the different structures of the school day in different countries. The five schools presented here are in highly contrasting cultural settings – Scotland, Sweden, Japan, South Africa and Hong Kong – and some of the differences are immediately striking. They range from the very open-ended and flexible school day in Sweden to the highly structured day in the Hong Kong school, reflections more of the general culture than of the school itself. But beneath these obvious differences we are also struck by many of the apparent similarities – subjects, periods, classes, tests, pressure – things we have come to accept as defining the place called school. This does raise some fundamental questions about ways in which schools have traditionally structured learning and teaching and continue to do so. It prompts us to ask what the alternatives to this traditional school day might be.
