Curriculum reform as contested: An analysis of curriculum policy enactment in Queensland, Australia

Artefacts are an important part of policy work, and a means of representation, translation, re-negotiation, and resistance of policy. While research has established their integral role in policy enactment, little research has examined the production and/or dissemination of artefacts by teacher educators. This paper reports and analyses the production and re-production of a specific set of artefacts, arising from the policy work of four teacher educators seeking to influence the interpretation and enactment of the Australian Curriculum in Health and Physical Education (AC HPE). Analysis and discussion pursue: the rationale for producing a set of artefacts focusing on a particular feature of the AC HPE; the processes of artefact production; actions designed to activate and re-present the artefacts; and emerging evidence of uptake and impact. The relationship of artefacts to policy work is shown to be strategically significant for teacher educators, teachers and others invested in new curriculum developments, and is characterised as both fluid and generative. We argue that artefacts have important performative policy potential and play a key role in supporting and shaping curriculum policy enactment.

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Indonesian Curriculum Reform in Policy and Local Wisdom: Perspectives from Science Education

Jurnal Pendidikan IPA Indonesia ◽

10.15294/jpii.v10i1.28438 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 69-80

Author(s):

N. Suprapto ◽

B. K. Prahani ◽

T. H. Cheng

Keyword(s):

Science Education ◽

Literature Review ◽

Curriculum Reform ◽

Policy Science ◽

Position Paper ◽

Empirical Literature ◽

Learning Science ◽

Curriculum Policy ◽

Policy Borrowing ◽

The Government

This article summarizes the issue of Indonesian curriculum reform in policy and local wisdom. The perspectives on science education influence the analysis and discussions. This paper is part of a position paper (PP) in which the writers tailored their ideas based on their experiences and literature review. The views regarding curriculum policy, science local wisdom, and ethnoscience were developed based on theoretical and empirical literature regarding these issues. The discussion is divided into five parts: curriculum policy and policy borrowing, philosophy of Indonesian local wisdom, cultural-based learning, science local wisdom and ethnoscience, and policy borrowing versus local wisdom. The significance of the results gives a view to the government, academicians, policymakers, and educational communities.

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Understanding the Relation of Policy Discourse and Re-Conceptualising Curriculum: A Kosovo Perspective on a New Meaning of Context

Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal ◽

10.26529/cepsj.559 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 33

Author(s):

Blerim Saqipi

Keyword(s):

Curriculum Reform ◽

Critical Reflection ◽

Curriculum Theory ◽

Policy Discourse ◽

Curriculum Policy ◽

Education Systems ◽

Policy Orientation ◽

Reform Implementation ◽

School Based ◽

Curriculum Reforms

This article is an analysis of the meaning of context in implementing curriculum reform. It uses an analysis of two Kosovo curriculum reforms in the previous two decades to elaborate on how education systems engage in the transfer of transnational ideas as well as how they face challenges in making those ideas succeed. The article uses Discursive Institutionalism and the debate between the Didaktik and Curriculum Theory Traditions as a framework for analysis to understand the form of ideas and types of discourses that are relevant for successful curriculum reform. While the Kosovo curriculum reform has been struggling to find a balance between the Didaktik and Curriculum Theory traditions, it is evident that two reform projects did not provide sufficient possibilities forcoordinative discourse among key actors in the reform implementation. For reform to succeed, education systems need to balance between both background and foreground ideas as well as communicative and coordinative discourses. In education systems whose professional capacities are limited and whose resources are scarce, such a balance gains greater importance, indicating the need for more school-based development activities. Therefore, the context should not be viewed as solely static, but needs to be assigned a new meaning regarding what it is and should be placed at the service of reform implementation by recognising the importance of critical reflection when adopting a particular curriculum policy orientation and tailoring the discourse for promoting reform ideas.

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Willing but Unable? Teachers’ Sense-making of Curriculum-reform Policy in the Early Implementation Stage

Pedagogika ◽

10.15823/p.2019.135.3 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 135 (3) ◽

pp. 52-70

Author(s):

Godsend T. Chimbi ◽

Loyiso C. Jita

Keyword(s):

Curriculum Reform ◽

Sense Making ◽

Curriculum Policy ◽

Reform Policy ◽

History Teachers ◽

Early Implementation ◽

Multiple Case ◽

Depth Interviews ◽

Implementation Stage

This paper explores how history teachers in Zimbabwe interpret the new curriculum policy and how their understanding influenced the implementation of the new reforms. Using a qualitative multiple-case study of history teachers data were collected through document analysis, in-depth interviews and extensive non-participatory lesson observations. Results seem to challenge the traditional view that teachers are naturally resistant to change and are saboteurs who tend to undermine reform proposals. Instead teachers need to be empowered on how to implement the envisaged changes.

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