This article applies a current example of curriculum reform to investigate mechanisms driving the push for international comparative assessment of social and emotional skills in contemporary education. Using a combination of bibliometric and content analysis the article identifies key sources in the recent Norwegian curriculum reform. The article considers how understanding and measurability of social and emotional skills is negotiated in policy documents and the cited knowledge base. Nine international sources are identified in the policy documents underlying the reform. Arguments from these sources are compared with arguments in policy documents to demonstrate overlap and potential misalignment. The final curriculum is found to be in non-alignment with the knowledge base that supports of a broad understanding of social and emotional skills and the measurement of such skills in schools. Drawing on critical realism the authors argue that Norwegian policymakers have rejected the global push for comparative assessment. They have drawn a red line to prevent social and emotional skills from becoming part of students' subject competence and to protect students from standardized assessment of such skills in schools. This position represents a strong case against measurability that may influence ongoing debates on quantification and comparisons in education.

This article investigates curriculum understanding in bullying research and discusses how such an understanding can contribute to bullying prevention in schools. So far, no studies have systematically investigated an understanding of curriculum in research on bullying prevention. Building on a critical review of 29 studies, the article identifies curriculum as a broadly understood concept constricted in different categories of bullying research. Such compartmentalization, the article argues, may contribute to the underutilization of curriculum knowledge in bullying research and obstruct the development of new and innovative approaches to prevent bullying in schools. The study concludes that curriculum knowledge should be more explicitly addressed in bullying research, and that more collaboration is needed. Emphasizing a whole-school approach, without a broader understanding of curriculum, risks constraining the application of pedagogical knowledge in bullying prevention.

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