ABSTRACT
While academic achievement is of paramount concern within a contemporary curriculum, children’s and young people’s holistic potential to participate, contribute and understand their role as citizens in a diverse and changing society must also be a key educational aspiration. Rapid political, economic and cultural shifts taking place globally mean that children are being educated to contribute to societal contexts which are in transition. Alongside core skills of numeracy and literacy, creativity and cultural awareness must also be central tenets if the twenty-fi rst century curriculum is to address the needs of lifelong learners across a range of changing sociocultural and educational settings.
