Preface; Acknowledgements; Contents; Acronyms; Part I Introduction; 1 Researching the Changing World of Education; References; Part II Re-thinking and Reform of Education Today-Foundations and Debates; 2 Knowledge and Education in the 21st Century; The Changing Context; A Global World Economy; Technological Change; Social Movements, Politics, the Politics of Knowledge; 'Internationalisation' and Global Population Flows; The 'Mode 1' and 'Mode 2' Perspective; Disciplinarity and Interdisciplinarity; The School Curriculum: Which Subjects? Which Skills?

Inequality, Politics and 'Bringing Knowledge Back In'Conclusion; References; 3 History and Physics as Disciplines; Disciplinarity and Differences between the Humanities and the Sciences; History as a Discipline; History in Australian Schools and Universities; Physics as a Discipline; Physics in Australian Schools and Universities; Conclusion; References; 4 New Public Management and the Changing Governance of Universities; Changing Political Ideas about Universities; The System-Level Governance of Universities in Australia; Institutional Governance and Management.

Implications for History and PhysicsReferences; 5 Changing Agendas and the Governance of the School Curriculum; Education, Evidence-Based Policy Making and Globalised Agendas for Schooling; Changing Emphases in Curriculum Development in Australia; Structures, Processes, Politics; ACARA and the Shift Towards a National Curriculum; Conclusion; References; Part III Schools; 6 Australian 'History Wars': The Contested Purpose of History in the Curriculum; Why Does History Matter or What Matters About History?; National Curriculum and the Problem of Content Overloading; Conclusion; References.

7 The Physics Curriculum: What Is the 'Discipline' that Needs to Be Nurtured?Teachers' Descriptions of Physics; What is Physics Education For?; Physics in the General Science Curriculum; Senior Physics; Conclusion; References; 8 Inward and Outward Facing Knowledge: Curriculum Purposes and Slippages; Curriculum Purposes; Standards, Benchmarks, Competition; The Drive for Short-Term Pay-off; 'Powerful' Knowledge and 'Everyday' Knowledge; Conclusion; References; Part IV Universities; 9 'What Does Your Discipline Look Like and How Does It Matter?' Historians and Physicists Talk.

Historians and Physicists on their DisciplinesThe Disciplines and the University Curriculum; Physics; History; Conclusion; References; 10 Disciplines and Interdisciplinarity; Interdisciplinarity and its Relation to Disciplinarity; Disciplinary Identity; Interdisciplinarity and Disciplinary Difference; Increasing Specialisation and the Knowledge Explosion; Interdisciplinarity as Learning from Other Disciplines; The Management of Interdisciplinarity within Universities; Interdisciplinarity Pushes and Pulls; Interdisciplinarity and Teaching; Conclusion; References.