Effective curriculum policy and cross‐curricularity: analysis of the new curriculum design of the Hellenic Pedagogical Institute

Abstract

In this paper we perform text analysis on the new Cross Thematic Curriculum Framework Syllabus Design for compulsory education, which was constructed by the Hellenic Pedagogical Institute and is soon going to be applied in Greek schools. This curriculum text is treated as a policy text which introduces important changes in Greek school practice, mainly through the adoption of a specifically defined cross‐curricular approach to syllabus design. The core argument of the policy actors involved in this reform is that this particular innovation is a good curricular practice that will contribute to the further modernization of compulsory schooling in Greece. It is also claimed that this intervention is based on the Greek educational context as well as European educational policy. We investigate this argument by examining the way the idea of cross‐curricularity (or unifying school knowledge and teaching and learning across the curriculum) is introduced in the text as well as at the level of educational practice. In doing so the interrelationships of the various stages of implementation are investigated. The issues identified in the analysis that relate to the educational and policy basis of this change are finally presented in a comparative way.

Keywords:

• Curriculum policy
• Cross‐thematic curriculum
• Flexible curricula
• Creative school
• Greece