Curriculum Reform Through the Lens of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching: A Comparative Analysis of Ghana's Objective-Based and Standards-Based Senior High School Mathematics Curricula

Curriculum reform has become a central strategy for improving mathematics education, with increasing emphasis on conceptual understanding, problem solving, and twenty-first-century competencies. In Ghana, the transition from the 2010 Objective-Based Curriculum to the 2023 Standards-Based Curriculum for Senior High School mathematics represents a significant shift in curriculum philosophy, instructional expectations, and intended learning outcomes. Although previous studies have examined teachers’ perceptions and implementation challenges, limited attention has been given to how the reform has reshaped the mathematical knowledge expected of teachers. This study employed qualitative document analysis to compare the two curricula through the six domains of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching: Common Content Knowledge, Specialized Content Knowledge, Horizon Content Knowledge, Knowledge of Content and Students, Knowledge of Content and Teaching, and Knowledge of Content and Curriculum. The curriculum documents were coded deductively using ATLAS.ti, and the resulting frequencies were interpreted alongside qualitative evidence from the documents. The findings indicate that both curricula place substantial emphasis on teachers’ mathematical knowledge, but the Standards-Based Curriculum makes a broader range of pedagogical and interpretive knowledge demands explicit. Pedagogical Content Knowledge increased from 29.1% of coded instances in the Objective-Based Curriculum to 43.3% in the Standards-Based Curriculum. The later curriculum also makes mathematical connections, attention to learners’ prior knowledge, inquiry-based instruction, collaboration, inclusive pedagogy, and practical application more visible. The findings suggest that successful curriculum implementation requires more than the publication of a revised curriculum document. Teacher education and professional development must deliberately strengthen teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching so that they can interpret and enact the broader expectations embedded in the Standards-Based Curriculum. The study contributes to research on curriculum reform by demonstrating how the MKT framework can be used to examine changes in the professional knowledge expected of mathematics teachers.