I am delighted to write the editorial for the third issue of IIER for this year. The journal is enjoying much interest and increased submissions from national and international education scholars, who are working on a range of research issues and problems. A topic that has long captured my interest is the disparity of experiences of people's social and professional lives and the stability of traditional educational practices. This interest was reignited recently as I cleaned out a cupboard filled with old manuscripts and floppy discs (!!!) dating back to my PhD work. Incidentally, I also received my son's 2011 National Assessment Program - Language and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test results in the same week. The rapidly changing ways we do things today compared to only a decade ago are signalling the importance of information communication technologies (ICTs) in modern life based on convenience, speed, and (cost) effectiveness. This is in stark contrast with the ways in which our children are still experiencing school education. The discrepancy between modern life on the one hand, and school education practices on the other hand is, so it seems to me, an illustration of what Giroux (1993) and others (Anderson & Maninger, 2009; Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010) perceive to be a long-standing problem in much of Western school and teacher education. The interplay between professional, cultural and social change practices and outcomes and the stability of school education practices and valued outcomes is likely to affect the prospects of future knowledge workers in significant ways. The tension that is created between the 'master narrative' (sometimes referred to as grand narrative), which is represented by the ways in which many teachers teach and school students are made to learn 'the curriculum content', and the ways in which this practice could affect the learning of 21st century knowledge and skills is the focus of this editorial.