ABSTRACT
The transformative politics of framing aims to change the deep grammar of frame-setting in a globalizing world. This chapter outlines what we call a problematic-based curriculum approach (PBCA), in which students work with/on knowledge in relation to local problems that matter. It argues that PBCA is trans-formative in N. Fraser's sense, not merely re-formative, for changing the deep 'grammar' of schooling that has frustrated generations of reformers. To engage student energies and intelligence, problems selected for curriculum focus must really matter in lifeworld milieus. For students to develop knowledge-abilities to think and pro-act, pedagogic contexts should be rich in knowledge presence and transaction, gathered to matters of compelling interest. Students and teachers could use 'funds of knowledge' methods – ethnographic forays in local community settings and classroom discussion of what they find–to identify molten matters.
