Journal article
Curriculum form and professional practice: insights from systemic functional linguistics
Discourse, Vol.47(2), pp.274-288
2026
Abstract
The form of curriculum documents plays a crucial yet often overlooked role in shaping teacher professional practice and educational outcomes. While curriculum content has been widely studied, less attention has been paid to how formal elements, such as structure, taxonomies, and definitions, mediate teaching. In this article, we examine the concept of curriculum form, review prior work on the issue and explore reasons for its neglect. We argue for the value of using Systemic Functional Linguistics in curriculum texts analysis to advance research on curriculum form. We demonstrate the utility of this approach with an analysis of a contemporary curriculum document, the Queensland Japanese Senior Syllabus (QCAA. (2024). Japanese 2025 v1.2 general senior syllabus. Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority. https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/senior-qce/syllabuses/snr_japanese_25_syll.pdf), and show how networks of intertextual links constrain curriculum interpretation, how interpersonal language resources are linked to accountability practices, and how language choices in the text can shift the locus of curriculum control in the direction of teacher professionalism or central prescription.
Details
- Title
- Curriculum form and professional practice: insights from systemic functional linguistics
- Authors
- Luke Beck (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine CoastPeter Grainger (Author) - University of the Sunshine CoastLevi Durbidge - University of the Sunshine Coast
- Publication details
- Discourse, Vol.47(2), pp.274-288
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Date published
- 2026
- DOI
- 10.1080/01596306.2025.2551362
- ISSN
- 1469-3739
- Copyright note
- © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Business and Creative Industries; Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre; School of Education and Tertiary Access
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991155039802621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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