All over the world curricula are being reformed or reinvented. In almost all cases, a central objective is to develop a curriculum that prepares young people for their future positions and roles in society. But ‘society’ has changed, from a more local focus, to a more globalized situation, in which remaining isolated is less and less possible. At the same time, this globalizing force makes people think about who they are, what their society makes it theirs and what values and norms should be kept, reinforced or changed. Identity seems to be a strong factor. This process is an interesting struggle that seems to differ from context to context, while at the same time parallels can be drawn between different curriculum reforms and adaptations. But there are other questions surfacing: Some nations are more heterogeneous, contexts can differ in larger but also in smaller nations. What knowledge and skills are worth most and where, and who should be deciding that? Are curricular decisions best made at national level, or should it become decentralised and placed at meso or even micro level?

Different approaches in curriculum reform or reinvention lead to sometimes different tensions, but also solutions that could be beneficial to questions like ‘what makes us us’, ‘how could we preserve what we find valuable’ and ‘what knowledge and skills do our young need to gather our place in the global world’.

The three papers presented at this symposium offer an interesting mix of curriculum reforms around the globe, providing perspectives from homogenous and very diverse national contexts.

The Surinamese project will reflect on how international perspectives can become combined with the wide variety of local educational contexts while aiming at a basic education curriculum for all. The reality of the capital seems to differ more with that of the local interior, than with other cities in the world.

The Yemeni project describes the tension that arose during the development of a teacher training curriculum at universities, in a country that shows a strong identity people are proud of, while at the same time the nation wishes to connect to the rest of the world. Teachers in their preparatory programs are the future change agents in such processes.

The paper of the Azores addresses how insularism contributes to regionalisation of curriculum. Over the past decade, the curriculum of the Azores has differentiated from the mainland Portuguese programme. The analysis identified five kinds of relationship between the local and the global in the Azorean curriculum that are interesting for other reforms as well.