ABSTRACT
Chapter 9 contains a concluding discussion in which the research findings are related to the theoretical and methodological framework. It further problematises the meaning of teaching in a time of transnational policy borrowing and standards-based curricula. The results from the classroom studies indicate that curriculum standards are crucial to classroom teaching and practices amid societal and educational change. The new version of teaching – teaching as a way of exploring students’ knowledge – can be understood as a direct response to the teacher’s responsibility for students meeting the knowledge requirements of different subjects, as the importance of raising standards is increasingly defined by curriculum configurations in schools and classrooms. As a consequence of multi-layered spaces of transnational policy influence, drawing on experts and ‘objective’ sources as numbers and results from international large-scale assessments, both denationalised and depoliticised processes emerge with far-reaching ramifications on curriculum prioritisations and decisions.
