From content transmission to competency-based design: historical analysis of skill discourse in primary mathematics curricula

This article examines how the concept of ‘skill’ has been defined and institutionalized in primary mathematics curricula across five national systems the United States, England, Finland, Singapore, and Türkiye and within OECD policy frameworks between 1900 and 2025. The analysis draws on 23 official curriculum texts and supranational policy documents (approximately 197,000 words of policy language across Periods III—V) coded using a four-category analytical matrix applied to identifiable policy statements. Intercoder reliability was established on a 20% subsample (Cohen’s κ = .76–.83). The study reconstructs five periods of paradigmatic change and develops a three-type typology of discourse—architecture alignment. Findings indicate that in many contexts competency language in curriculum documents has expanded ahead of corresponding transformation in content organization and assessment design. Competency framing is frequently layered onto content structures whose epistemic logic remains predominantly procedural. Evidence from Singapore and Finland demonstrates that coherent alignment between skill discourse and epistemic architecture is achievable when professional knowledge infrastructures and assessment systems support the curriculum’s epistemological aims across successive reform cycles. The proposed typology offers a comparative analytical framework for examining how global competency discourses interact with national curriculum structures and accountability regimes.