The global, the local, and the science curriculum: A struggle for balance in Cyprus

In documenting educational reforms in the science curriculum of developing countries, a number of tensions become apparent as a result of struggles to preserve local values while incorporating global trends. This article describes and analyses these tensions and paradoxes, and discusses the intersections of cultural, economic, administrative and educational history of elementary school science curriculum development in Cyprus since its independence from the British in 1960. Using a combination of methodological tools that range from document analysis, historical research and ethnographic methods of collecting data, it is argued that the global and the local can be viewed spatially in terms of linking people, spaces and diverse knowledges. In order to ensure that local values in science curriculum development can be sustained without being absorbed by globalization curriculum developers in developing countries need to create spaces in which the local can be performed together with the global.