Introduction

This book is concerned with the relationships and tensions in education between children's needs and societies' demands, questions which primary teachers everywhere face on a daily basis, such as:

• how does society's view of children and childhood affect teaching and learning?
• how do the dictates of the education system, including a national curriculum, shape teaching practice?
• how do the conventions of classroom practice fit with teachers' own beliefs and values?

The first part of the book offers a basic framework for thinking about primary curricula from the perspectives raised by these questions, whilst the second part presents a range of international views on the primary curriculum from Australia, New Zealand, South-East Asia, Europe and the USA.