Showing papers in "Journal of Curriculum Studies in 2004"
TL;DR: This article developed a distributed perspective on school leadership as a frame for studying leadership practice, arguing that leadership practice is constituted in the interaction of school leaders, followers, and the situation, and developed a framework for studying the interaction between school leaders and followers.
Abstract: School‐level conditions and school leadership, in particular, are key issues in efforts to change instruction. While new organizational structures and new leadership roles matter to instructional innovation, what seems most critical is how leadership practice is undertaken. Yet, the practice of school leadership has received limited attention in the research literature. Building on activity theory and theories of distributed cognition, this paper develops a distributed perspective on school leadership as a frame for studying leadership practice, arguing that leadership practice is constituted in the interaction of school leaders, followers, and the situation.
1,657 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a conceptual framework for teacher learning and development within communities and contexts is proposed to understand the variety of ways in which teachers respond in the process of learning to teach in the manner described by the Fostering a Community of Learners (FCL) programme.
Abstract: We explore our efforts to create a conceptual framework to describe and analyse the challenges around preparing teachers to create, sustain, and educate in a ‘community of learners’. In particular, we offer a new frame for conceptualizing teacher learning and development within communities and contexts. This conception allows us to understand the variety of ways in which teachers respond in the process of learning to teach in the manner described by the ‘Fostering a Community of Learners’ (FCL) programme. The model illustrates the ongoing interaction among individual student and teacher learning, institutional or programme learning, and the characteristics of the policy environment critical to the success of theory‐intensive reform efforts such as FCL.
900 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the impact of the pedagogic reform, "Fostering a Community of Learners", in science, social studies, English language arts, and mathematics, and outlined the key characteristics of this reform and described the main issues in subsequent examinations.
Abstract: Education research in learning and teaching has alternated historically between periods in which subject matter disciplines were used as the organizing framework for investigation and implementation, and other periods in which the content areas nearly disappeared in favour of a quest for generic principles of instruction that could transcend disciplinary boundaries. There are few examinations of how these factors interact in the context of specific classroom‐ and pedagogy‐centred school reform. The papers that follow in this issue of JCS examine this issue through the lens of the pedagogic reform, ‘Fostering a Community of Learners’. This introduction outlines the key characteristics of this reform and describes the main issues in subsequent examinations of teachers learning to implement ‘Fostering a Community of Learners’ in science, social studies, English language arts, and mathematics.
152 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that there are seven goals to be addressed within China's curriculum reform: (1) the establishment of a new curriculum philosophy or ideal; (2) the development of educational objectives; (3) the renewal of educational content and experience; (4) the reconstruction of a model of curriculum organization; (5) innovation in curriculum materials; (6) the creation of an active mode of teaching and instruction; and (7) evaluation of curriculum evaluation.
Abstract: Curriculum developers and scholars in China are facing a set of inter‐related issues around the goals and the strategies of curriculum reform. This paper argues that there are, as in every process of curriculum development, seven goals to be addressed within China's curriculum reform: (1) the establishment of a new curriculum philosophy or ideal; (2) the development of educational objectives; (3) the renewal of educational content and experience; (4) the reconstruction of a model of curriculum organization; (5) innovation in curriculum materials; (6) the establishment of an active mode of teaching and instruction; and (7) the establishment of a new system of curriculum evaluation. Six strategies are needed for China to reach these goals: (1) improving the system of curriculum management; (2) redeveloping the mechanisms of curriculum reform; (3) promoting school‐based curriculum development; (4) integrating information technology with curriculum; (5) emphasizing teachers' professional development; and (6) ...
113 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe the action-competence approach used in environmental and health education in Denmark, which implies students' genuine participation and actions, as well as interdisciplinarity.
Abstract: The paper describes the action‐competence approach used in environmental and heath education in Denmark. This approach implies students' genuine participation and actions, as well as interdisciplinarity. The concept of action is often described in vague terms with the implication that the action concept is ambiguous in educational practice and discussion. Here I distinguish ‘action’ from ‘behavioural change’ and ‘activity’. I outline different forms of action and explore the issue of knowledge about environmental and health issues from an action‐oriented perspective. Three case studies illustrate the approach.
101 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a chronology of standardized testing within Alberta, Canada is provided, where the movement to standardized testing is viewed as part of a larger societal movement toward techniques of government that operate indirectly and at a distance.
Abstract: While debates over standardized testing are ubiquitous, there has been relatively little consideration of how today's standardized testing practices have arisen. The current study provides a chronology of standardized testing within Alberta, Canada. Starting from prior work by Foucault and others on ‘governmentality’, we propose that the movement to standardized testing be viewed as part of a larger societal movement toward techniques of government that operate indirectly and at a distance. These techniques of government seek to ‘manage’ populations through the use of measurement tools and numerical calculations. We suggest that, although these techniques are directed toward populations, they also have specific effects on individual students, parents, teachers, and other participants in the education system. In particular, we contend that standardized testing programmes, by rendering the participants visible and subjecting them to public scrutiny, contribute to the construction of governable persons.
78 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined how physical education teachers respond to homophobic name-calling, as revealed in life history interviews with "lesbian", "gay" and "heterosexual" teachers in Canada and the USA.
Abstract: I examine how physical education teachers respond to homophobic name‐calling, as revealed in life history interviews with ‘lesbian’, ‘gay’, and ‘heterosexual’ teachers in Canada and the USA. Censoring homophobic name‐calling in schools is discussed as an important, but insufficient, response. Several ‘lesbian’ and ‘gay’ teachers responded with pedagogies of injury; that is, they recalled their personal experiences of homophobic language to teach students not to use words such as ‘fag’, ‘dyke’, and ‘queer’. I examine why some teachers were prepared to risk further personal injury in order to prevent injury to other students. In addition to rational and conscious explanations, I speculate that an unconscious masochistic imperative may also animate this approach to anti‐homophobic education. Ultimately, I ask what is demanded from teachers if this type of anti‐homophobic teaching is animated by what has been called an attachment to subjection.
67 citations
TL;DR: The authors discuss the methodological problems in explorations of the role of school textbooks as agents of socialization, and suggest methods for exploring and understanding the dynamic interaction between textbooks and their readers.
Abstract: School textbooks are assumed to be important socializers. However, because of the complexity and methodological stumbling blocks involved in the subject matter, the impact of specific textbooks and the interaction between pupils and textbooks have seldom been studied. I discuss the methodological problems in explorations of the role of school textbooks as agents of socialization, and suggest methods for exploring and understanding the dynamic interaction between textbooks and their readers.
65 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that it is possible to teach mathematics through the FCL pedagogy, but that doing so requires some rethinking of both mathematics instruction and FCL, and describe three shifts that aided a teacher's implementation of FCL with mathematics: the teacher developed a new perspective on mathematics that emphasized the importance of having students learn both mathematical concepts and processes; the teacher develops a new understanding of the role of the teacher in mathematics education reform; and the teacher modified his understanding of FFL, coming to believe that a discourse community could be the basis for FCL in a mathematics
Abstract: This is the fifth in a series that examines the challenges that teachers in different domains face as they attempt to implement the pedagogical reform ‘Fostering a Community of Learners’ (FCL). Here we focus on the relationship between FCL and the teaching of mathematics. We argue that it is possible to teach mathematics through the FCL pedagogy, but that doing so requires some rethinking of both mathematics instruction and FCL. In particular, we describe three shifts that aided a teacher's implementation of FCL pedagogy with mathematics: the teacher developed a new perspective on mathematics that emphasized the importance of having students learn both mathematical concepts and processes; the teacher developed a new understanding of the role of the teacher in mathematics‐education reform; and the teacher modified his understanding of FCL, coming to believe that a discourse community could be the basis for FCL pedagogy in a mathematics classroom.
52 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show how the knowledge structures and traditions of the amalgamated multi-discipline of social studies at once help and hinder the use of constructivist instructional models.
Abstract: This paper shows how the knowledge structures and traditions of the amalgamated multi‐discipline of social studies at once help and hinder the use of constructivist instructional models. I interpret the planning process of two ‘Fostering a Community of Learners’ units and examine how these two units are implemented by four teachers, given their domain‐specific knowledge and modes of thinking. The data suggest that the pragmatism of social studies, as well as the idea of multiple perspectives constituting social scientific and social studies knowledge, makes this field a prime candidate for constructivist modes of thinking and the design of expert and jigsaw sequences. But the weak relationship of the subject to referent disciplines and the pragmatic reliance on proven activities makes for weak conceptual synthesis in the teaching units.
42 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a study of English language teaching conducted in Delhi State of India that sought to examine the assumption that a change in an evaluation pattern can trigger curricular reform was conducted.
Abstract: Evaluation plays a pivotal role in deciding what the learners learn and what the teachers teach in schools. The paper reports a study of English‐language teaching conducted in Delhi State of India that sought to examine the assumption that a change in an evaluation pattern can trigger curricular reform. Did concomitant changes take place in the teaching and testing of English at the upper‐primary stage when the Central Board of Secondary Education introduced changes in the courses of study and the examinations in English language at the end of class X (age 15 +), the occasion of the first high‐stakes public examination in India? This expectation of change was confirmed in the findings of this study, which may apply to other curricular areas and speak to any school system ready to implement reforms in their instructional practices.
TL;DR: In this paper, a researcher worked with four African-American middle-school girls to critique the ways girls' bodies are implicated in the schools' hidden curriculum, using the Beauty Walk, a school-sponsored fundraiser.
Abstract: We examine what happened when a researcher worked with four African‐American middle‐school girls to critique the ways girls' bodies are implicated in the schools' hidden curriculum We analyse an example of instruction around ‘The Beauty Walk’, a school‐sponsored fundraiser Drawing on critical and feminist pedagogies we ask: how did the researcher initiate and support engagement in the inquiry process?; and how did the girls interact with the researcher? Through a micro‐level analysis of verbal interactions, we develop a case study highlighting participation patterns The researcher created both the topic agenda and the processes by which the girls would critically engage with the topic She used a variety of strategies to scaffold the girls' development of a verbal and written critique Marked by points of engagement and resistance, the girls' participation varied among the girls and across inquiry tasks Even so, the girls were able to develop a written and verbal critique We question our choice of us
TL;DR: Fostering a Community of Learners (FCL) exemplifies a class of pedagogical approaches aimed at having students become reasoners and sense-makers in various content domains as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Fostering a Community of Learners (FCL) exemplifies a class of pedagogical approaches aimed at having students become reasoners and sense‐makers in various content domains. While the pedagogical practices among these approaches vary to some degree, they tend to overlap in philosophy and general pedagogical style. Hence issues confronted by those attempting to implement FCL will be confronted by those hoping to implement similar activities. The three‐level commentary in this paper begins with specific reactions to the preceding papers, which focused on attempts to implement FCL in different content areas. It continues with a discussion of what counts in FCL: for example, is it a set of participant structures such as jigsawing, or a set of underlying principles? It concludes with a discussion of systemic issues that will be faced by any pedagogical approach focusing on having students engage in reasoning and sense‐making in the classroom.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a view of classroom practice where power is conceptualized not as a negative force that dominates, but as a productive force that simultaneously constrains and enables human action.
Abstract: This study reports on the strategies (overt and subtle) employed by students in one senior secondary school in Botswana to keep their teachers in an information‐giving position. Contrary to the prevailing view that the ‘teacher dominance’ of classroom activities so often reported in classroom studies results from teachers' desire for social control, this study sees the dominance as a negotiated product, resulting instead from teachers and students exercising power on one another. Such a view of classroom practice is only possible where power is conceptualized not as a negative force that dominates, but as a productive force that simultaneously constrains and enables human action. Viewed this way, classroom reality becomes a co‐construction, a ‘joint project’ by teacher and students. Attempts to change this reality, therefore, must include both teacher and students.
TL;DR: The authors investigated the motivational power of children to change teachers' beliefs about teaching and found that Preservice teachers were learning from the children what they expect their teachers to know, to do, and to be, and in consequence, teachers were likely to establish and change their beliefs about children and how to teach.
Abstract: This paper investigates the motivational power of children to change teachers' beliefs about teaching. Weekly and summary reflections written by 18 preservice teachers served as data sources. Preservice teachers were learning from the children what they expect their teachers to know, to do, and to be, and in consequence of the face‐to‐face encounters with children, teachers were likely to establish and change their beliefs about children and how to teach. Teacher educators may encourage this learning by asking preservice teachers, during and after their work in classrooms, to respond to the questions: ‘As I related to the children, what did they require from me?’, and ‘How did I respond to these demands?’. The work of Emmanuel Levinas on the relationship in the face‐to‐face encounter between people provided an interpretive framework for evaluating responses to these questions.
TL;DR: A critique of a paper by Wraga and Hlebowitsh in the Journal of Curriculum Studies (2003) for narrowness of vision, repetition of already-familiar material, irrelevance, a retreat into the academy, reductionism, and ultimate sterility as an approach to moving forward the fields of curriculum theory and development can be found in this paper.
Abstract: This paper offers a critique of a paper by Wraga and Hlebowitsh in the Journal of Curriculum Studies (2003) for narrowness of vision, repetition of already‐familiar material, irrelevance, a retreat into the academy, reductionism, and ultimate sterility as an approach to moving forward the fields of curriculum theory and development. Curriculum discourse should be marked by richness, diversity, discordant voices, fecundity, multiple rationalities, and theories, and should be touched by humanity and practicality in a hundred thousand contexts. To replace outworn but convenient labels and to advance the field, curriculum theory must catch the untidy but authentic lived experiences of curricularists of every hue, draw on emergent disciplines outside education, and touch major issues in everyday life.
TL;DR: The relationship between technology and didactics in the light of, for instance, the writing of John Dewey and Carl Mitcham is discussed in this article. But the focus of this paper is on web-based learning environments.
Abstract: Didactics and technology were closely related terms about four centuries ago. Subsequently both terms took on different meanings. Educational technology reunited the two terms, but the critique of educational technology of the 1960s disrupted the development of both educational technology and didactics as a discipline within education. The ‘new’ educational technology of the 1960s had developed with little debate about how didactics contained a viable and legitimate ‘technology’ and what its legitimate borders and imperatives are concerning educational technology. Contemporary web‐based learning environments offer a similar challenge to a ‘critical’ didactics but a critique must avoid the naive anti‐technological romanticism of the previous generation of critics to reinterpret the relationship between technology and didactics in the light of, for instance, the writing of John Dewey and Carl Mitcham.
TL;DR: The authors address three issues central to the exploration of "Fostering a community of learners" in subject-matter domains: discipline, understanding, and community, and discuss the role of community in this process.
Abstract: These comments address three issues central to the exploration of ‘Fostering a Community of Learners’ in subject‐matter domains: discipline, understanding, and community.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the development and implementation of an "invertebrates" unit and a "circulatory system" unit by two teachers and examine how FCL is influenced by the discipline of science, the teaching of science and the conceptions that teachers have surrounding these two topics.
Abstract: This paper is the third in a set of papers that explores the understanding and implementation of the educational system, ‘Fostering a Community of Learners’ (FCL) across subject matters. We examine how FCL is influenced by the discipline of science, the teaching of science, and the conceptions that teachers have surrounding these two topics. We discuss the compatibilities between the discipline of science and the vision of science teaching in FCL. We explore the development and implementation of an ‘invertebrates’ unit and a ‘circulatory system’ unit by two teachers. Two issues of curriculum design from FCL—finding ‘big ideas’ around which to build a unit, and the ‘jigsawable research’ that is intended to build on students' interests as well as create interdependence and discourse among students—offer evidence on how these teachers understood the discipline of science, science teaching, and FCL.
TL;DR: The authors conducted a qualitative, multiple case study on teacher involvement in large-scale assessment and concluded that active participation in marking served to clarify rather than corrode their pedagogical values, affirmed or improved their classroom assessment and instructional practices, validated their self-perceptions as professionals, and had a neutral or negligible impact on school relationships.
Abstract: This qualitative, multiple case study draws into question claims that teacher involvement in large‐scale assessment is professionally debilitating. Four teacher‐scorers of reading in the 1998 Council of Ministers of Education, Canada's School Achievement Indicators Programme national literacy assessment were interviewed pre‐, during, and post‐marking in terms of their personal and professional motivations for participation, their perception of the role of such evaluations in classroom practice, their self‐concept as autonomous professionals, and the impact of such evaluations on their relationships with colleagues, students, and administrators. Teachers reported that active participation in marking served to clarify rather than corrode their pedagogical values, affirmed or improved their classroom assessment and instructional practices, validated their self‐perceptions as professionals, and had a neutral or negligible impact on school relationships. It is concluded that involvement in low‐stakes, large‐sc...
TL;DR: The most important general conclusion is that curriculum development and implementation should not be viewed as two separate processes, but rather as one interactive process as mentioned in this paper, and the factors which may influence it.
Abstract: In 1978, more than 100 science educators from Israel and ∼ 50 leading science educators and researchers representing 13 countries convened at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (23–28 July) and The Hebrew University, Jerusalem (30 July–2 August) to discuss problems and issues of curriculum development and curriculum implementation in science.1 Forty years ago, when the revolutionary reform in science education emerged, many of these issues were new. Before that time, curricula had been developed locally, by those who planned to teach them; as a consequence, terms like dissemination, diffusion, utilization, and implementation were rarely used. The importance of such terms became evident as the movement of curriculum development at the national level gained prominence, especially in science. Today, drawing on the experiences of the last 30 years, we are not only able to specify what curriculum developers have to consider in terms of implementation, but we can also draw some significant conclusions from our experiences with implementation for curriculum development in the future. The most important general conclusion is that curriculum development and implementation should not be viewed as two separate processes, but rather as one interactive process. The purpose of this paper is to describe the nature of this interaction and the factors which may influence it.
TL;DR: This paper examined three middle school and secondary school English teachers' attempts to adapt and enact the principles and practices of the Fostering a Community of Learners (FCL) model.
Abstract: This study examines three middle school and secondary school English teachers' attempts to adapt and enact the principles and practices of the ‘Fostering a Community of Learners’ (FCL) model. As a systemic pedagogical model designed to foster authentic dialogue and inquiry, FCL challenges deeply held traditions of English as both a school subject and academic discipline. Three critical incidents, selected from separate extended case studies, reveal the conceptual challenges teachers face when bringing to life practices consistent with constructivist learning principles. The study shows that through simplification of the model and gradual experimentation, the teachers began to approximate the systemic integrity of FCL. The study identifies key curriculum‐planning strategies employed by the teachers that led to pedagogical innovation (e.g. double‐planning, renaming, isolation, retrenchment, and fusion).
TL;DR: This article explored the influence of the teacher on the language games being played in a grade 3 mathematics classroom and found that the kinds of listening strategies used by the teacher seemed to have an effect on the performance of the students.
Abstract: In this paper, we explore the influence of the teacher on the language games being played in a Grade 3 mathematics classroom. The kinds of listening strategies used by the teacher seemed to have an...
TL;DR: In this article, the incidental learning of English taking place outside the classroom results in the same kind of proficiency as that resulting from formal classroom learning in Swedish-minority students in Finland.
Abstract: In Finland, English is widely visible outside the school context, above all in the area of entertainment and mass media, and is no longer regarded as a foreign language in the old sense of the word. Among Swedish‐minority students in Finland, the dominant status of English in various mass media leads to positive attitudes towards English among students and provides strong motivation to acquire the language. This paper considers whether the incidental learning of English taking place outside the classroom results in the same kind of proficiency as that resulting from formal classroom learning.
TL;DR: The authors explored the changing conditions of the Swedish minority in bilingual Finland and discussed the recent debate in Finland about whether the increased use of languages other than L1 is to be seen as a factor "adding value" to or devaluing national identity.
Abstract: This paper explores the changing conditions of the Swedish minority in bilingual Finland. It describes the framework for Finland's bilingualism and the present situation of the Swedish minority in Finland. It concludes with a discussion of the recent debate in Finland about whether the increased use of languages other than L1 is to be seen as a factor ‘adding value’ to or devaluing national identity.
TL;DR: In this paper, a realist ontology demands that the necessary elements of education, including respect for reality, knowledge, and truth, should be an integral part of the school curriculum.
Abstract: The sociology of the curriculum has been placed at the centre of a narrative of how social and cultural reproduction is effected through the symbolic power of the school. An influential body of critique maintains that the forms of the curriculum are characterized by an ‘arbitrary’ that effectively confines access to knowledge to those students who possess the code required for its acquisition. The insights of this critique, particularly as represented by Bourdieu and Bernstein, are invaluable. A realist ontology demands, however, that the necessary elements of education, including respect for reality, knowledge, and truth, should be an integral part of the school curriculum. It is concluded that the possibility of reconciling the arbitrary with the necessary should be grasped.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore one school's implementation of a locally developed curriculum reform known as "Math Science Investigations" and explore the understandings of the general process of change developed from this situation.
Abstract: This paper explores one school's implementation of a locally developed curriculum reform known as ‘Math‐Science Investigations’. At one level, it offers an account of a reform told from the perspective of a classroom teacher and her 3rd‐ and 4th‐graders. At another level, it reconstructs their experience to explore the understandings of the general process of change developed from this situation: the critical role relationship plays in the process of reform; the recognition of the value of time as a component in change; and the necessary respect for continuity of experience of individuals in considering growth. At yet another level, it considers ways in which a story, such as ‘Math‐Science Investigations’, exhibits characteristics of metaphor.
TL;DR: After a visit to Gallipoli in 2000, the prime minister of Australia, John Howard, expressed concern that history was not being taught as it should in Australia's schools as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: After a visit to Gallipoli in 2000, the prime minister of Australia, John Howard, expressed concern that history was not being taught as it should in Australia's schools. There was, he said, ‘perha...
TL;DR: In a rapidly changing world in which citizens have to cope with rapid technological change, are science and technical education offer students the literacy they will need as citizens? as discussed by the authors investigates the role of science education in science education.
Abstract: Does science education offer students the literacy they will need as citizens? In a rapidly changing world in which citizens have to cope with rapid technological change, are science and technical ...