Coordinating, communicating, and combining languages in local immersion education policy reform in Finland

The aim of this article is to examine local enactment of new curriculum policy, paying special attention to combining the language of instruction in the school (Finnish) and the immersion language (Swedish) in an early total one-way Swedish immersion programme in Finland at a programmatic level. The study combines ethnography with educational language policy by focusing on coordinative and communicative discourses surrounding local immersion curriculum. The participatory observation data consist of 36 hours of audio-recorded curriculum working group meetings with immersion teachers and researchers. The findings showed that the curriculum task assigned to municipalities and cities providing immersion education was extensive. They also revealed how discursively oriented policy research on immersion education opens up new ways to develop immersion education. The actual curriculum decisions implied that the Swedish portion of the immersion programme is multilingual and rich in connections between multiple languages, contesting the common belief of monolingual practices in immersion instruction.

Enhancing the Facilitation of Interprofessional Education Programs: An institutional Ethnography

Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) among health care professionals has been identified as essential to enhance patient care. Interprofessional education (IPE) is a key strategy towards promoting IPC. Several factors including the nature of facilitation shape the IPE experience and outcomes for students. Stereotypes held by students have been recognized as a challenge for IPE and IPC. This study aimed to explore institutional rules and regulations that shape facilitators’ work in IPE interactions problematized by students’ stereotypes at a university in Atlantic Canada. Employing institutional ethnography as a method of investigation, data were collected through observations, interviews, focus groups, and written texts (such as course syllabi). Participants included three facilitators, two undergraduate nursing students, and two IPE committee members of an IPE program. Findings revealed four work processes conducted by facilitators in local IPE settings related to students’ stereotypes. These processes were shaped by translocal discourse and included the work used to form teams, facilitate student introductions to team members, facilitate team dynamics, and provide course content and context. Study results included the identification of several strategies to address student stereotypes and enhance collaboration, including directions for future curriculum decisions and the pedagogical organization of IPE.

Teachers’ perceptions on development and implementation of History 2167 syllabus in Zimbabwe

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of teachers on the development and implementation process of the History 2167 syllabus reform in Zimbabwe. Successful implementation of syllabus reforms depends on teachers’ ownership and knowledge about the reform ideas. Teachers are the closest individuals to the circumstances of the decisions made and their role as implementers gives them a significant influence on curriculum decisions. However, studies on syllabus development and implementation have often explored these processes using the input from other stakeholders while overlooking teacher perceptions. Data for this qualitative phenomenological study were generated from transcripts of in-depth interviews with five purposively sampled history teachers drawn from five secondary schools in the Glen. View/ Mufakose District in Harare Metropolitan Province. Findings showed that the success of curriculum reforms largely rests on the shoulders of teachers, since they are the ones who put reform ideas into practice. We conclude that in order for curriculum reforms to succeed, the policy-makers and teachers should work harmoniously to cultivate appropriate instructional practices. We recommend that teachers should actively participate in the syllabus development process, as well as have the power to influence the decisions about the implementation of the curriculum. Key words: development and implementation; History 2167 syllabus; syllabus reform; teachers’ perceptions.

Investigating the Challenges Faced by the Teacher Educators after Implementation of Pre-Service B.Ed (Hons.) Elementary Four-Year Program in Sindh

The main purpose of this article is to bring up the challenges faced by the teacher educators during the implementation of B.Ed (Hons.) elementary program initiated by the provincial governments and HEC in collaboration with United State Agency for International development (USAID) in Pakistan. In this study two general universities i.e., University of Sindh and Karachi University were included which received the funding from USAID for upliftment of Elementary Education in the Sindh province, where this teacher educators’ program was piloted and later on fully implemented. In-depth semi-structured face to face interview schedule was developed to conduct the survey type qualitative research design. Five teacher educators from each university (N=10) through purposive sampling were selected and interviewed to collect the data. The gathered data were thematically analyzed on the pattern of Braun & Clarke (2006) approach. On the bases of the analyses, it was inferred that the program despite of its successful completion of first round faced many intrinsic problems such as the lack of trained human resources, lack of involvement of the concerned faculty in curriculum decisions, lack of implementation of the modern pedagogies for bringing quality into the program. Moreover, the external factors such as physical resources and the quality of the intake were also slanting the performance of the program to some extent. These finding are in alignment with the previous studies conducted in the similar context to assess the implementation of teacher education programs. However, the administration of the institutes of so far found playing active role in carrying on the program smoothly despite of the challenges. In the light of the findings of the study, it is recommended that the intervention to provide the funds as well as physical facilities at this stage is inevitable. Keywords: B.Ed elementary teacher educator program, implementing program, challenges

From Curriculum Theory to Theorizing

Curriculum theory is shaped and held within the larger field of curriculum studies, but its distinctive focus on understanding curriculum as opposed to developing it places it is stark contrast with other parts of the larger field. This focus is further distinctive when curriculum theory shifts to curriculum theorizing. Curriculum theorizing emerged in the United States, principally at Bergamo conferences and precursor conferences, in the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing (JCT), and through scholars associated with the reconceptualization. It has spread internationally via the International Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies and its subsidiaries in many different countries and cultures. Some scholars hold that curriculum theory includes curriculum theorizing as well as normative and analytic conceptualizations that justify or explain curriculum decisions and actions. Curriculum theorizing attempts to read broadly in social theory so as to embody those insights in dealing with issues of curriculum, and can take philosophical, sociological, psychological, historical, or cultural studies approaches to analyses, interpretations, criticisms, and improvements. This approach has built upon what has become known as the reconceptualization, which began in the late 1970s and continues into the early 21st century. Increasingly, the field has taken up analysis of contemporary education policy and sociopolitical contexts as an outgrowth of its work. Issues of race, gender, class, sexuality, and dis/ability, and the ways in which their intersectionality impact the lived experience of schools, continue to motivate and direct the field of curriculum studies. In so doing, criticism, analysis, interpretation, and expansion of such issues have moved the focus of curriculum theorizing to include any aspects of social and psychological life that educate or shape the ways human beings reflect upon or interact with the world.

Social awareness and engagement in undergraduate music students: Generating a foundation for curriculum decisions

Tertiary music institutions, like universities generally, are increasingly recognising the value and importance of a curriculum that fosters social awareness and social engagement in students. This article reports on a mixed-methods research project that investigated the nature and extent of social awareness and engagement among undergraduate students at one Australian tertiary music institution. Through a survey methodology, the research sought to understand students’ interest in, and awareness of, pressing contemporary social issues, as well as their prior, current and perceived potential future engagement in those issues. A clear understanding by educators, researchers and tertiary music institutions of the nature and degree of undergraduate students’ social awareness and engagement is an important and arguably necessary foundation for expanding and improving socially engaged teaching and learning initiatives.

Challenges for Peacebuilding and Citizenship Learning in Colombia

Some education practices can impede learning democratic citizenship agency by reinforcing injustices or omitting dissenting perspectives. Other practices may help address conflict issues through problem-posing inquiry activities. This literature review explores the ways social sciences’ curriculum practices can select knowledges that enhance peace or exacerbates violence. Considering peace and conflict theories, I highlight the limitations and possibilities for peacebuilding of Colombia’s citizenship and social sciences’ curricula. Also, I discuss the ways certain social studies curriculum decisions (selections and omissions) may reproduce violence, injustice and passivity. Finally, I discuss how certain practices may develop critical citizenship capacities to handle conflicts.

Believing in Your “Other” You

In this chapter, the author presents critical examination of teacher belief systems as a promising culturally responsive approach to support the success of all children. Culturally responsive educators wholeheartedly believe in the positive possibilities of all children. Conversely, literature has demonstrated unfavorable outcomes of children of color when teachers held deficient beliefs about children of color and their families. The author demonstrates ways in which implicit biases become problematic as they inform curriculum decisions, which have not historically produced favorable outcomes for children of color. The author makes the case that teachers must have the “will” to teach children in ways that support them in excelling and engage in an emancipatory pedagogical African concept known as eldering. The author demonstrates how culturally responsive educators have demonstrated this belief through the literature.