Variations on a theme by Paganini

Curriculum debates tend to get mired in binary opposition: disciplinary versus interdisciplinary, skill versus project, cultural transmission versus critical analysis. This is not surprising, given the ostensibly competing moves towards national curriculum consistency on the one hand, and attempts to streamline, integrate and reconceptualise core curriculum on the other. The real issues, however, are far more substantial, and at once quite simple. This brief article picks up on some of them, and reports from the work of the Queensland New Basics project on some ideas that might help moving beyond binary opposition. This can be achieved by framing knowledge around four key challenges which face students.