About the centre
The Stirling Centre for Research into Curriculum Making, founded in October 2023, is led by Professor Mark Priestley and builds on the work of the previous Stirling Network for Curriculum Studies, established in 2016.
The Stirling Centre for Research into Curriculum Making (SCRCM) develops and undertakes original research into curriculum making, engages in knowledge exchange with policy makers and practitioners to develop the curriculum across education systems, and disseminates research through face-to-face events and webinars.
The Stirling Centre for Research into Curriculum Making, founded in October 2023, is led by Professor Mark Priestley and builds on the work of the previous Stirling Network for Curriculum Studies, established in 2016.
The notion of curriculum making is based upon the premise that curricula are constructed – made – across multiple sites of activity within education systems, and that curriculum can be studied as social practice. As a foundation for the Centre, the following definition of curriculum is adopted:
The multi-layered social practices, including content selection, infrastructure, pedagogy and assessment, through which education is structured, enacted and evaluated, with at least three dimensions:
This approach entails analysis of the ecology of curriculum making – the development of systemic understanding of how the different components of curriculum work together across education systems to enable the development of coherent programmes. Thus, the Centre develops research across the full panoply of activities which comprise curriculum making, from discourse formation, to policy framing, to practical curriculum making in various educational settings (schools, colleges, early years settings, HE, community/non-formal).
[1] Priestley, M., Philippou, S., Alvunger, D. & Soini, T. (2021). Curriculum Making: A conceptual framing. In: M. Priestley, D. Alvunger, S. Philippou. & T. Soini, Curriculum making in Europe: policy and practice within and across diverse contexts. Bingley: Emerald.
SCRCM has considerable expertise in a range of areas related to curriculum making, as well as across qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. At the centre of our work is Curriculum Making: Theory, Policy, Practice, with related specialities including:
If you are interested in being more involved with SCRCM and/or would like to be added to our mailing list to ensure you receive information and updates as soon as they are available, please contact us.
The Centre is led by Professor Mark Priestley. Other members of the management team are:
SCRCM organises various types of event, aimed at academics, practitioners and policy makers. These include a series of regular webinars, as well as larger scale face-to-face events held on the University campus.
Topic | Speaker | Date and time | Location | Registration link |
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Community Curriculum Making: Going Places, Meeting People and Doing and Making Things | Professor David Leat, Newcastle University |
Wednesday 17 September 2025, 16.00-17.30 |
Online | Register for Community Curriculum Making |
Racially literate teaching and the future of Future 3 curriculum making | David Lambert (UCL), Kelly Leon (University of Wisconsin), Angela Hinckley (Education Scotland), Khadija Mohammed (UWS) and Nuzhat Uthmani (University of Stirling) |
Thursday 13 Nov 2025 16:00 - 18:00 |
Iris Murdoch Building, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA | Register for Racially literate teaching |
What kind of Climate Change and Sustainability Education do we need in complex times? | Professor Lizzie Rushton, University of Stirling |
Monday 24 November 2025 16:00 - 17:30 |
Online | Register for Climate Change and Sustainability Education |
Topic | Speaker | Date and time | Event type |
---|---|---|---|
Curriculum and leadership making: the challenges and potential ways forward |
Lekha Sharma, School Improvement Leader and the author of ‘Curriculum to Classroom and Building Culture’ (John Catt 2020) |
Thursday 12 June 2025, 16:00 to 17:30 |
Webinar |
How to use art as a provocation for cross-curricular engagement |
Liz Conacher, National Galleries of Scotland, and Natasha McMillan, University of Stirling |
Monday 10 June 2024 16:00 - 17:30 |
Webinar |
Towards Posthuman Education: Curriculum-Making for a World to Come | Dr Kay Sidebottom, University of Stirling |
Wednesday 14 May 2025 16:00 - 17:30 |
Webinar |
AI in the Curriculum: transformational, terrifying or just a bit annoying? |
Prof Judy Robertson (University of Edinburgh) and Andrew Hay (Newbattle High School Digital Centre of Excellence) |
Tuesday 11 March 2025, 16:00 to 17:30 |
Webinar |
'What's a Student Council?' - initial findings in student-led negotiated curriculum for democratic education through NEEDS: Negotiating the Essentials for Education in Democratic Societies. |
John O’Reilly and Eabha Hughes, University of Limerick |
Monday 3 February 2025, 16:00 to 17:30 |
Webinar |
Education, the Arts and Climate Change | Georgia Rose Murray, Prof Lizzie Rushton, University of Stirling |
Thursday January 30 2025, 16:00 to 18:00 |
In-person event in Pathfoot Building, University of Stirling |
Facilitating and fostering collaborative design with and within the IB community | Pilar Quezzaire and Edlyn Chao, International Baccalaureate Organisation |
Monday 2 December 2024, 16:00 to 17:30 |
Webinar |
Decolonising the Curriculum – reflections on challenges and opportunities from academia, policy and practice | This face -to-face event will adopt a question panel format, and feature Professor Lizzie Rushton (chair, University of Stirling), Dr Haira Gandolfi (University of Cambridge), Professor Joao Paraskeva (University of Strathclyde), Nuzhat Uthmani (University of Stirling) and Melina Valdelievre (Education Scotland) |
Monday 27 November 2024 16:00 - 18:00 |
In-person event in Iris Murdoch Building, University of Stirling |
Discipline and perish? Disciplinarily in the 21st century | Prof Arthur Chapman, UCL/IoE |
Wednesday 13 November, 2024, 16:00 to 17:30 |
Webinar |
Changing High Stakes Assessment Systems: Traditions, Contradictions and Bear Traps | Prof Louise Hayward, University of Glasgow |
Tuesday 1 October 2024, 16:00 to 17:30 |
Online |
Saying the Unsayable: Asking the Big Questions of Curriculum for Excellence |
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Monday 2 September 2024, 16:00 to 17:30 |
Online |
How to use art as a provocation for cross-curricular engagement |
Liz Conacher, National Galleries of Scotland, and Natasha McMillan, University of Stirling |
Monday 10 June 2024 16:00 - 17:30 |
Online |
Children’s Agency and Curriculum Making | The speakers are Yana Manyukhina and Dominic Wyse, UCL |
Tuesday 28 May 2024 16:00 to 18:00 |
In-person event in Iris Murdoch Building, University of Stirling |
Responding to the Nature & Climate Emergency: voices from educational policy, practice, school leaders, and young people | Speaking at this event is Greg Mannion, Heena Dave, Sophia Georgescu, Lizzie Rushton (University of Stirling) and Jennifer Hutton (Dunblane Primary School) |
Tuesday 23 April 2024 16:00 - 18:00 |
In-person event in Iris Murdoch Building, University of Stirling |