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Curriculum Planning and Systems Change

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Abstract

This article discusses the nature and complexity of curriculum planning from the perspective of systems theory. It argues that significant curricular change requires systems change which entails impacting change across the institutional, programmatic, and classroom levels of curriculum. Curriculum planning for significant change thus involves a coordination of planning at all three levels, which requires a collaboration of a multitude of participants and representatives from the government, educational agencies, universities, business, schools, and communities at large. Providing teachers with sufficient support and resources is crucial for the planning endeavor.
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Abstract:
This article discusses the nature and complexity of curriculum planning from the perspective of systems theory. It
argues that significant curricular change requires systems change which entails impacting change across the
institutional, programmatic, and classroom levels of curriculum. Curriculum planning for significant change thus
involves a coordination of planning at all three levels, which requires a collaboration of a multitude of participants
and representatives from the government, educational agencies, universities, business, schools, and communities at
large. Providing teachers with sufficient support and resources is crucial for the planning endeavor.
Keywords: Curriculum; Curricular change; Curriculum development; Curriculum governance; Curriculum
implementation; Curriculum planning; Curriculum policy; Curriculum reform; Educational reform; Instruction;
Systems change
Author and Co-author Contact Information:
Au1
Z Deng
Faculty of Education
The University of Hong Kong
Pokfulam Road
Hong Kong
People’s Republic of China
(852) 2857 8398
(852) 2858 5649
zdeng@hkucc.hku.hk
Biographical Sketch for Online Version
Zongyi Deng is an associate professor at the Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong. His interest areas include
curriculum, philosophy of education, educational policy, teacher preparation, and science education. Recent publications appear
in the Sage Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction,Curriculum Inquiry, and the Journal of Curriculum Studies.
EDUC: 00062
ELSEVIER FIRST PROOF
a0005 Curriculum Planning and Systems Change
Z Deng, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China
ã2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
p0005 Systems theory, as conceptualized by theorists after the
1950s, views the world in terms of a unified whole and
self-organizing systems, with an emphasis on the interde-
pendent nature of the relationships that exist among all
components of the unified whole (Boguslaw, 2000). From
this perspective, significant change requires systems
change that entails impacting changes across all constitu-
ent systems. Such a theory is useful in analyzing the
nature, character, and complexity of curriculum planning
for significant change.
p0010 This article first describes three basic domains of cur-
riculum planning which can be viewed as three constitu-
ent systems. It then discusses their interrelationships and
the implications for curriculum planning for significant
change. This is followed by an examination of three com-
mon models of curriculum planning which are intended
to bring about significant curricular change. The article
concludes with addressing what is entailed in curriculum
planning for significant change.
s0005 Three Levels of Curriculum Planning
p0015 Curriculum planning refers to the decision-making pro-
cess concerning the substance of schooling, that is, the
knowledge, skills, and dispositions that constitute the
experience and outcome of schooling. Broadly construed,
it operates across three basic domains of curriculum;
institutional, programmatic, and classroom (Doyle, 1992a,
1992b). Each of these curriculum domains constitutes a
system or subsystem that, in varying degrees, has an impact
on what is taught and learned in school.
s0010 Institutional Curriculum Planning
p0020 The institutional curriculum embodies a conception or
paradigm of what public schooling should be with respect
to a society. Curriculum planning at this level is charac-
terized by discourse on curriculum policy at the intersec-
tion between schooling, culture, and society. It invokes
images, metaphors, or narratives to typify what could
happen in a school or school system (Westbury, 2000).
For instance, thinking School is used by the Ministry of
Education in Singapore to conveya vision of schooling for
the twenty-first century – a vision that defines the devel-
opment of critical thinking and creativity as a central
purpose of schooling. Institutional curriculum planning
frames what should go on in a school or school system in
terms of broad goals and general approaches to education.
It serves as a means of drawing attention to educational
ideals and expectations shared within a society and put-
ting forward the forms and procedures of schooling as
responses to these ideals and expectations (Doyle, 1992b:
70). Such curriculum links what is taught in schools to the
social and cultural systems beyond schooling, and is
always under pressure for change. Since social and cul-
tural contexts often change rapidly, school systems always
use the institutional curriculum as convenient instrument
to communicate responsiveness to the outside commu-
nities (Doyle, 1992a: 487).
p0025Institutional curriculum planning is always a national or
regional political undertaking. In countries with centralized
education systems like France, Singapore, Malaysia, and
China, the legal responsibility for institutional curriculum
planning is the province of the central government.
National educational bodies (ministries, departments)
play a substantial role in the planning process. In countries
with decentralized systems such as Canada, UK, and
Australia, state or provincial governments are constitution-
ally responsible for making institutional curriculum deci-
sions. Regional educational agencies are instrumental in
the planning process. Regardless of it being in centralized
or in decentralized systems, curriculum planning at the
institutional level, more often than not, involves soliciting
the opinions and suggestions from various representative
groups – including policy advisory bodies, employment
agencies, educational specialists, heads of schools, and vari-
ous civic and special interest groups.
s0015Programmatic Curriculum Planning
p0030Programmatic curriculum planning is at the intermediate
levels between institutional curriculum and classroom
curriculum planning, with a focus on curriculum writing
in the form of curriculum documents and materials
(Doyle, 1992a). It translates the expectations and ideals
embedded in the institutional curriculum into operational
frameworks for schools, thereby bridging the gap between
the abstract institutional curriculum and the (enacted)
classroom curriculum (Westbury, 2000). In Singapore the
notion of thinking schools becomes the introduction of
thinking programs to be implemented in primary and
secondary schools. The programmatic curriculum is char-
acterized by an array of school subjects, programs, and
courses of study provided to a school or a system of schools.
EDUC: 00062
1
ELSEVIER FIRST PROOF
For these school subjects, programs, and courses of study,
the programmatic curriculum also spells out instructional
guidance in terms of content standards, instructional frame-
works, criteria for textbook approval and adoption, and
assessment criteria.
p0035 Programmatic curriculum planning refers to the formal
process of constructing the curriculum which involves
‘‘framing a set of arguments that rationalize the selection
and arrangement of content [knowledge, skills, and dispo-
sitions] and the transformation of that content into school
subjects’’ (Doyle, 1992b: 71). The planning process, Tyler
(1949) believes, entails addressing the questions concern-
ing purposes, content, organization, and evaluation in a
sequential fashion:
1. What educational purposes should the school seek to
attain?
2. What educational experiences can be provided that are
likely to attain these purposes?
3. How can these educational experiences be effectively
organized?
4. How can we determine whether these purposes are
being attained?
p0040 Tyler’s model prescribes what steps one needs to follow
in planning a curriculum. However, it does not describe
what curriculum developers actually do when they are
engaged in curriculum planning (Westbury, in press). In
practice, programmatic curriculum planning is a highly
sophisticated undertaking. It is a collaborative and coop-
erative endeavor that always involves committees made up
of representatives from governments, educational agen-
cies, schools, universities, business, industry, and the com-
munity at large. It occurs within ‘‘webs of societal and
cultural ideologies and symbols, politics and organized
interest groups, organizational and administrative struc-
tures and processes, and local understandings, beliefs and
practices’’ (Westbury, in press). As in institutional curricu-
lum planning, national and regional educational agencies
play a key role in programmatic curriculum planning.
s0020 Classroom Curriculum Planning
p0045 The classroom curriculum, also called curriculum as
event or the enacted curriculum, is characterized by a
cluster of events jointly developed by a teacher and a
group of students within a particular classroom (Doyle,
1992a, 1992b). It is an evolving construction resulting
from the interaction of the teacher and students. Curricu-
lum planning at this level involves transforming the insti-
tutional and programmatic curriculum embodied in
curriculum documents and materials into educative
experiences for students. It requires further elaboration
of the programmatic curriculum, making it connect with
the experience, interests, and the capacities of students in
a particular classroom (Westbury, 2000). Curriculum
planning can be the effort of an individual teacher or a
team of teachers responsible for identifiable students,
deciding alone or with students what shall occur in a
specific educational setting. Such curriculum is shaped
in a powerful way by a range of local factors, including
teachers’ own classroom perspectives, students’ interests
and experiences, school principals’ requirements, and par-
ents’ expectations (Doyle, 1992b).
p0050The three levels of curriculum planning together
imply a hierarchy of decision-making activities from the
institutional to the classroom ones Au2
. This, however, does
not mean that curriculum planning must begin with a
national ministry or state department of education in
formulating curriculum policy, proceed to writing curric-
ulum documents and related materials, and eventually
end up with school teachers in implementing the docu-
ments and materials in classroom. In practice, curriculum
planning could begin anywhere. It could, for example,
start with an individual teacher or a group of teachers
and a class of students. Teachers can participate in what is
called school-based curriculum development (SBCD) in
which they articulate their own visions and goals of teach-
ing, develop their own curriculum materials in the light of
their visions and goals, and put the materials into practice
with students. However, this does not mean that teachers
could completely ignore the existence of curriculum goals
and instructional guidelines developed at the national or
state level – a point that will be further addressed in
sections that follow.
s0025The Interdependence of Three Levels of
Curriculum Planning
p0055The three levels of curriculum planning are interrelated
and interdependent; each does not function in isolation of
others. Curriculum planning at the institutional level pro-
vides a departure point and a frame of reference for
curriculum planning at the programmatic level. It serves
to clarify the normative, ideological bases for curriculum
decision makings, drawing attention to the public charac-
ter of curriculum that goes beyond the private interests
and concerns of individuals. By articulating the aims,
purposes, ideals, and expectations for public schooling,
institutional curriculum planning points to a desirable
direction for programmatic curriculum planning. Without
attending to those aims, purposes, ideals, and expectations,
programmatic curriculum planning could lose sight of the
responsibilities that schooling as an institution needs to
bear in contributing to the common good of a society.
p0060Classroom curriculum planning, although remote from
institutional curriculum planning, has an indirect yet sig-
nificant link with the institutional curriculum. The con-
struction of the classroom curriculum often involves a
teacher’s use of curriculum materials (e.g., textbooks
2Curriculum Planning and Systems Change
EDUC: 00062
ELSEVIER FIRST PROOF
and teacher guides) adopted by a school or school system –
materials that are normally developed with reference to
what is desired and valued in the institutional curriculum.
In planning instructional activities, a teacher interprets
and transforms the materials in the light of his or her
knowledge and beliefs about the purposes of schooling,
about his or her students, about pedagogy, and about the
school and classroom contexts (Wilson et al., 1987). To a
certain extent, the classroom curriculum thus reflects the
teacher’s interpretation of ‘‘what is desired by unseen,
remote decision makers’’ (Goodlad et al., 1979: 21).
Furthermore, when the classroom curriculum becomes
visible in various ways (such as public examinations,
classroom surveys, and parent meetings) to administra-
tors, parents, and others interested in education, questions
concerning the interplay between schooling and society
could be inevitable: for example, what are the purposes of
schooling? How well does the curriculum prepare stu-
dents to meet the current and future challenges of the
social and political order? Social and political forces are
brought to bear at the school or classroom level. The
classroom curriculum thus is connected indirectly back
to the institutional curriculum which, in one way or
another, ‘‘serves as a normative framework for defining
and managing the work of teachers’’ (Doyle, 1992a: 487).
p0065 Apparently, institutional curriculum planning seeks to
affect classroom curriculum planning through the pro-
grammatic curriculum – curriculum that provides the
medium in and through which the institutional curricu-
lum operates. By translating the institutional curriculum
into an array of school subjects, programs, and courses of
study, programmatic curriculum planning creates the
organizational and operational structure for classroom cur-
riculum planning. School subjects, programs, or courses of
study constitute the locus of classroom teaching; they frame
the character of the classroom curriculum and the ways
in which the curriculum might be seen within the school
community (Grossman and Stodolsky, 1995). The ways of
teaching a traditional school subject (e.g., history) and an
integrated subject (e.g., social studies) in a classroom could
be substantially different, so are the criteria of judging these
two subjects. Furthermore, by developing content standards,
instructional frameworks, syllabi, assessment criteria, and
the like, for those school subjects, programs, and courses of
study, programmatic curriculum planning furnishes the
instruments that serve to regulate and control classroom
curriculum planning, guiding what is to be taught and
learned in the classroom (Doyle, 1992a). These instruments
could steer classroom curriculum planning in the direction
set out in the institutional curriculum (Cohen and Spillane,
1992). Theycould also be resources for teachers to learn the
ideals and reform visions embedded in the institutional
curriculum (Cohen and Hill, 2001).
p0070 The effect of programmatic curriculum planning on
classroom curriculum planning, however, is complex and
in no sense straightforward. It has to do with the gover-
nance structure of curriculum planning. As already men-
tioned, in centralized education systems programmatic
curriculum planning is carried out mostly by government
educational agencies (e.g., national ministries of educa-
tion). The programmatic curriculum, which more often
than not is linked with high-stakes public examinations,
tends to have high power and authority over the class-
room curriculum. Classroom teachers are supposed to
follow closely the standards, frameworks, and guidelines
laid out in the programmatic curriculum; they have rela-
tively less latitude in deciding what to teach and how to
teach it (Cohen and Spillane, 1992). Programmatic cur-
riculum planning thus could significantly influence class-
room curriculum planning. However, in a decentralized
education system where local or regional authorities
make most programmatic curriculum decisions, class-
room Au3
teachers have considerably high latitude in shaping
the content and process of their curriculum. Program-
matic curriculum planning tends to have much less
impact on the classroom curriculum. The education sys-
tem in the United States typifies this governance structure
of curriculum planning in which state developed or man-
dated curriculum frameworks and materials do not have
formal authority over classroom practice (Cohen and
Spillane, 1992).
p0075Furthermore, programmatic curriculum planning,
whether in a centralized or a decentralized system, de-
pends, for its effect, on those implementing the program-
matic curriculum in school and classroom. While school
leaders could make decisions concerning the adoption of
a particular curriculum framework and related materials
as the programmatic curriculum for the school, classroom
teachers are the ones ultimately responsible for carrying
out the programmatic curriculum in their classrooms.
Programmatic curriculum planning affects classroom cur-
riculum planning only if teachers understand and employ
the adopted framework and materials. Teachers are not
conduits for the use of a curriculum framework and
related materials; as mentioned earlier, they interpret
and transform the framework and materials in the light
of their experience, beliefs, and practice. This could
further compound the impact of programmatic curricu-
lum planning on the classroom curriculum. Teachers’
entrenched beliefs, experience, and practice could over-
ride the educational ideals and innovations embedded
in the programmatic curriculum.
s0030Curriculum Planning for Systems Change
p0080As highlighted in the above discussion, the three basic
domains of curriculum are interrelated and interdepen-
dent, together constituting an organic whole. Signifi-
cant curricular change thus cannot be achieved by just
Curriculum Planning and Systems Change 3
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ELSEVIER FIRST PROOF
tweaking one or two domains in isolation; it entails sys-
tems change that requires impacting change across all
three domains of curriculum. To achieve this, all three
levels of curriculum planning are necessary and need to
work together in a way that ensures sustainable curricular
change at the classroom level. A defensible model of
curriculum planning for systems change, therefore,
needs to take account of all three levels of planning and
their relationships. None of the levels can be undermined
without undermining a vital factor in curriculum plan-
ning and development. With this in mind, three common
models of curriculum planning – namely top-down,
bottom-up, and combination – that intend to bring about
significant curricular change, or by implication, systems
change – will be considered.
s0035 Top-Down Model
p0085 The top-down model has been widely used in countries
with a centralized education system. For many centralized
countries, curriculum reform has been for a long time part
of national plans and development strategies. Usually, the
central government initiates curricular change by putting
forward new curricular visions and goals. These visions
and goals are then translated into programmatic or cur-
ricular frameworks that specify course structure, content
standards, pedagogy, and assessment. Using these frame-
works as a point of reference, the national education body
would implement a series of initiatives such as textbook
revision, assessment modification, teacher preparation,
and professional development restructuring. These initia-
tives are expected to steer teaching and learning in class-
room toward the reform visions and goals, resulting in
significant change in the classroom curriculum. Also
termed the framework approach (see Skilbeck, 1994),
the top-down model was adopted by many traditional
decentralized systems over the last two decades. For
example, in the 1990s following the lead of the federal
government, virtually all American states developed their
statewide curriculum frameworks. In Australia, Canada,
and other federated countries, there was a growing collab-
oration between state and federal authorities concerning
the construction of an overall framework for the school
curriculum based upon new curricular visions and goals
(Skilbeck, 1994). These curriculum frameworks were
believed to play a crucial role in steering the classroom
curriculum in the reform direction.
p0090 Such a top-down, centrally driven, and command-
oriented model places an extremely high emphasis on
institutional and programmatic curriculum planning
for change. Curriculum planning virtually becomes a
national or state enterprise under the authority of the
central educational agency. This model, however, rarely
works well at the school or classroom level. New curricu-
lar visions and frameworks often do not get implemented,
or are not implemented in the way they were intended
due to various reasons. There could be problems in com-
munication between the central agency and schools. Tea-
chers might resist a new vision and a framework in the
belief that they know better than those working at the
central agencies (Chapman and Ma¨hlck, 1997). Further-
more, a reform vision and a curriculum framework can be
read and understood by teachers in very different ways
according to their varying beliefs, values, commitments,
and experiences, thereby leading to different ways of
implementing that vision and framework (Cohen and
Ball, 1990). The importance of curriculum planning at
the classroom level, and particularly the complex rela-
tionship between programmatic and classroom curri-
culum planning, is largely overlooked or ignored in the
top-down model. In addition, the means and support for
implementing curricular change at the classroom level is
always inadequate in top-down approaches to curriculum
planning for systems change.
p0095Top-down, centralized planning for curricular change
can be seen as an effective instrument for steering cur-
riculum discourse at the institutional and programmatic
levels; the discourse, however, often gets lost in school and
classroom (Westbury, in press). When coupled with high-
stakes tests and accountability measures, this model could
have a detrimental impact on the classroom curriculum.
The current implementation of the No Child Left Behind
(NCLB) Act in the United States, Apple (in press) argues,
leads to an impoverished curriculum that is defined and
driven by the measure of student ability and competency
which is extremely narrowly defined, and that creates
greater inequalities between minority and majority chil-
dren in educational attainment.
s0040Bottom-Up Model
p0100In contrast to the top-down model, the bottom-up model
holds that significant curricular change comes from inside
out rather than the outside in or from the top down.
Central educational agencies (e.g., ministries of educa-
tion) can really do little to influence what happens in
school and classroom. To bring about change at the class-
room level, curriculum planning must be grounded in the
deliberative knowing and practical action of school prac-
titioners. By participating in bottom-up approaches to
curriculum planning like SBCD and action research, tea-
chers can become the central players in the curriculum
reform endeavor (MacDonald, 2003). Furthermore, a
school could become a learning organization by creating
conditions for school leaders and teachers to continually
develop new ideas and improve their quality of thinking
and capacity for reflection. They can work with students
and parents to form new curricular visions, translate their
visions into operational frameworks, and decide how best
to bring about change in the classroom curriculum
4Curriculum Planning and Systems Change
EDUC: 00062
ELSEVIER FIRST PROOF
(Fullan, 1993). The assumption is that successful curricu-
lar change could be relatively easy to achieve in a local
school or a cluster of local schools, and a significant num-
ber of such local changes can, over time, in an innovation
diffusion process build from the bottom up into a major
change in the overall educational system (Farrell, 1997).
p0105 This bottom-up, decentralized model, while appearing
promising, is fraught with problems and pitfalls. When the
entire enterprise of curriculum planning is reduced to
nothing but school and local business, the public character
of the school curriculum would be seriously undermined,
together with the public governance of curriculum
planning. Personal and local interests and powers would
prevail over those broader concerns for the society and
the welfare of mankind. Furthermore, when the full task
of curriculum planning is lobbed onto schools, at all
three levels, with all its complexity, it creates tremendous
demands on classroom teachers. Most teachers are neither
prepared for, nor do they have the experience and exper-
tise necessary to undertake, such a task. With respect to the
implementation of SBCD, MacDonald (2003) observes
that ‘‘what occurred in many Australian states and in the
USA were less demanding, poorly resourced and loosely
assessed curricula’’ (p. 141). The above innovation diffu-
sion assumption is indeed questionable. When planning
for curricular change is entirely left to the school, the
possible consequences include: (1) not much change at
school or classroom level; (2) changes in a problematic
direction; and (3) changes that do not spread out or endure
(Fullan, 2003). The basic problem of the bottom-up model
lies in the failure of recognizing the need for institutional
and programmatic curriculum planning that necessarily
go beyond the realm of school localities.
s0045 Combination
p0110 There has been an increasing interest in strengthening the
relationship between curriculum planning at the national
or state level and at the school and classroom level. This is
based on the realization that top-down guidance and
bottom-up initiatives need each other. While central edu-
cational agencies are incapable of dictating or mandating
change at the school and classroom level (Fullan, 1993),
they still have a fundamental role to play in designing
reform and translating reform into curricular frameworks,
documents, and materials that could support and enable
curricular change at the school or classroom level. While
classroom teachers need to have sufficient freedom and
autonomy in planning and carrying out curricular change,
they need guidance and support provided by schools and
external agencies as well.
p0115 A successful combination model needs to strike a bal-
ance between top-down and bottom-up approaches. It
needs to acknowledge, on the one hand, the key role of
classroom teachers as curricular change agents and, on the
other hand, the need for institutional and programmatic
curriculum planning in guiding, supporting, and enabling
curricular change at the classroom level. Three conditions
are critical with respect to institutional and programmatic
curriculum planning by external agencies. First, there
needs to be coherence among new curricular visions,
curriculum frameworks, assessments, and teacher profes-
sional development. Inconsistency would lead to different
and divergent interpretations of curricular change. Sec-
ond, curriculum frameworks and materials need to be
developed in a way that supports teachers’ planning for
significant change (Cohen and Hill, 2001). Curriculum
frameworks and materials can be an effective agent that
enables classroom teachers to plan for significant change
in a particular classroom context, if they were designed to
‘‘place teachers in the center of curriculum construction
and make teachers’ learning central to efforts to improved
instruction’’ (Ball and Cohen, 1996: 7). Third, teachers
need to have substantial opportunities for professional
learning that are grounded in practice and in specific
curricular changes (Cohen and Hill, 2001). In other
words, substantial professional learning is a key element
in curriculum planning for systems change.
s0050Conclusion
p0120Significant curricular change requires systems change that
entails impacting change across the institutional, program-
matic, and classroom curriculum. Curriculum planning for
systems change is a highly complex and challenging
endeavor. It entails a coordination of institutional, program-
matic, and classroom curriculum planning, the absence of
any of which would not result in significant change. It
requires a collaboration of a multitude of participants and
representatives from the government, educational agencies,
universities, business, schools, and communities at large.
It needs to provide teachers with sufficient support and
resources. Furthermore, it is important to bear in mind
that curriculum reform is part of a larger effort to reform
the school system. Curriculum planning thus needs to be
related to larger issues of school change and improvement,
significantly influenced by other policies and factors.
See also: Curriculum and teacher change (00060);
Curriculum governance and planning (00061); Curriculum
planning and systems change (00062); Curriculum reform
(00103).
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Cohen, D. K. and Hill, H. C. (2001). Learning Policy: When State
Education Reform Works. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Cohen, D. K. and Spillane, J. P. (1992). Policy and practice: The
relations between governance and instruction. In Grant, C. (ed.)
Review of Research in Education, vol. 18, pp 3–49. Washington, DC:
American Educational Research Association.
Doyle, W. (1992a). Curriculum and pedagogy. In Jackson, P. W. (ed.)
Handbook of Research on Curriculum, pp 486–516. New York:
Macmillan.
Doyle, W. (1992b). Constructing curriculum in the classroom. In Oser,
F. K., Dick, A., and Patry, J. (eds.) Effective and Responsible
Teaching: The New Syntheses, pp 66–79. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Goodlad, J. I., et al. (1979). Curriculum Inquiry: The Study of Curriculum
Practice. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Grossman, P. L. and Stodolsky, S. S. (1995). Content as context: The
role of school subjects in secondary school teaching. Educational
Researcher 24, 5–11.
Farrell, J. P. (1997). A retrospective on educational planning in
comparative education. Comparative Education Review 41,
277–313.
Fullan, M. (1993). Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational
Reform. London: Falmer.
Fullan, M. (2003). Change Forces with a Vengeance. New York:
RouledgeFalmer.
MacDonald, D. (2003). Curriculum change and the post-modern world:
Is the school curriculum-reform movement an anachronism? Journal
of Curriculum Studies 35, 139–148.
Skilbeck, M. (1994). Curriculum renewal. In Huse
´n, T. and
Postlethwaite, T. N. (eds.) The International Encyclopedia of
Education, pp 1338–1343. Oxford: Pergamon.
Tyler, R. (1949). Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction. Chicago,
IL: University of Chicago Press.
Westbury, I. (2000). Teaching as a reflective practice: What might
didaktik teach curriculum. In Westbury, I., Hopmann, S., and
Riquarts, K. (eds.) Teaching as a Reflective Practice: The German
didaktik Tradition, pp 15–39. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Westbury, I. (in press). The Au5
making of formal curricula: Why do states
make curricula, and how? In Connelly, F. M., He, M. F., and Phillion,
J. (eds.) Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Wilson, S. M., Shulman, L. S., and Richert, A. E. (1987). ‘‘150 different
ways’’ of knowing: Representations of knowledge in teaching. In
Calderhead, J. (ed.) Exploring Teachers’ Thinking, pp 104–124.
London: Cassell.
Further Reading
Beane, J., Toepfer, C. F., and Alessi, S. J. (1986). Curriculum Planning
and Development. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Eisner, E. W. (2000). Those who ignore the past...: 12 ‘‘easy’’ lessons
for the next millennium. Journal of Curriculum Studies 32, 343–357.
Fullan, M. (in press). Curriculum implementation and Au6
sustainability. In
Connelly, F. M., He, M. F., and Phillion, J. (eds.) Sage Handbook of
Curriculum and Instruction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Gay, G. (1991). Curriculum development. In Lewy, A. (ed.) The
International Encyclopedia of Curriculum, pp 293–302. Oxford:
Pergamon.
Levin, B. (2007). Curriculum policy and the politics of what should be
learned in schools. In Connelly, F. M., He, M. F., and Phillion, J. (eds.)
Sage Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction, pp 7–24. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Posner, G. J. (1998). Models of curriculum planning. In Beyer, L. E. and
Apple, M. W. (eds.) The Curriculum: Problems, Politics, and
Possibilities, 2nd edn., pp 79–100. New York: State University of New
York Press.
Reid, W. A. (1992). The Pursuit of Curriculum: Schooling and the Public
Interest. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Schwab, J. J. (1973). The practical: Translation into curriculum. School
Review 81, 501–522.
Westbury, I. (2003). Curriculum, school: Overview. In Guthrie, J. W. (ed.)
The Encyclopedia of Education, 2nd edn, pp 529–535. New York:
Macmillan.
Relevant Websites
http://www.ascd.org – ASCD Learn. Teach. Lead.
http://www.curriculum.org – Curriculum Services Canada.
6Curriculum Planning and Systems Change
EDUC: 00062
... Õppekavaarenduses osalemine tähendab õpetajatele panustamist õppekava kolmes funktsioonis: õppekava koostamine, õppekava rakendamine õpetamise ja juhendamise kaudu ning õppekava hindamine (Glatthorn et al., 2006). Kooliarendust ei toimu, kui õppekava funktsioone käsitletakse õppekavaarenduse eestvedamisel eraldiseisvatena (Deng, 2010) või unustatakse tegeleda kõigi kolmega. ...
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Kooli arengueesmärkide elluviimisel on oluline roll kooli õppekavaarendusel, kuid pole teada, kuivõrd organisatsiooni tegevusmustrid arengukava ja õppekava seoseid toetavad. Uuringu eesmärk on välja selgitada, kuidas toetavad kooli õppekavaarenduse eestvedamise rutiinid kooli arengueesmärkide elluviimist. Uurisime, (1) millised on kooli õppekavaarendusega seotud arengueesmärgid; (2) kuidas mõistab juhtmeeskond õppekava kooli arengueesmärkide elluviimisel; ja (3) millised õppekavaarenduse eestvedamise rutiinid on koolis kujunenud. Seitsme kooli juhtumiuuringu põhjal selgus, et arengueesmärkides domineerivad õppekava rakendamise eesmärgid ja õppekava hindamine on vähesel määral eesmärgistatud. Kooli juhtmeeskondade arusaamades on segadus õppekava rollist kooliarenduses. Uuritud koolides on õppekavaarenduse eestvedamise rutiinid, mis tagavad ülesannete delegeerimise. Samas ei toimi õpetajate koostöö õppekavaarenduses piisavalt. Summary
... National curriculum making typically involves selecting the values, ideas, skills, competences, and types of knowledge that a society wishes to pass on to future generations (Deng, 2010). Modern curriculum making is a social practice undertaken in different sites and across layers of the education system, which allows a variety of actors to participate (Priestley et al., 2021). ...
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Against the backdrop of curriculum reform in Norway, this article presents a study of teacher involvement and influence in national curriculum making through participation in official commentary processes. Education policy documents presented teacher involvement in the reform as essential to the legitimacy and ownership of the curriculum in schools, but a central question in this study is whether involvement in the process also means influence over the final curriculum. The study focuses on a central new element of the curriculum, the interdisciplinary topic democracy and citizenship, and analyses how teachers influenced the content of the new curriculum. Qualitative document analysis and reflexive thematic analysis were applied to curriculum drafts, responses to an official commentary process, and the final curriculum. The analysis shows that teachers' opinions were backgrounded throughout the development process, while the content suggested by educational experts was fore-grounded. In the final curriculum, the teachers' suggestions for content were omitted. The findings may have consequences for future reforms as well as for curriculum interpretation and operationalization in schools. ARTICLE HISTORY
... Content is knowledge selected into the curriculum and what learners are to be taught. Content is an essential resource; and to teach is to commit, whether consciously or unconsciously, to promoting knowledge vital for social reproduction and innovation, human development, and the flourishing of learners (Deng, 2010). Furthermore, when one engages in a discussion on classroom teaching, central to that discussion is content (Deng (2021). ...
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This pragmatic action research explores Grade 3 teachers’ understanding of the implemented mathematics curriculum content. Exploring teachers’ understanding of the mathematics curriculum content is required because understanding of content determines how teachers teach, the resources they use, and how teachers assess. It should be noted that, over time, curriculum reforms take place; and these reforms impact not only on teachers’ knowledge, expertise, or motivation, but also on their understanding. Understanding, as synthesised by the researcher, is a planned, prescribed system of presenting one’s thoughts and expertise regarding a particular subject; in this case, mathematics. In exploring this phenomenon, six Grade 3 teachers from Nkangala District in Mpumalanga were purposefully sampled to be part of this study. Data was generated through two phases of reflective activities, observations, interviews, and a focus-group discussion. To answer the two research questions of this study, the generated data was analysed guided by the natural identity framework themes. Findings revealed that teachers’ understanding of the implemented mathematics curriculum content is mostly informed by a combination of their need to comply with the prescripts of policy and higher authority, common understanding to appease their societal needs, and individual understanding based on their experiences and beliefs. The study drew the conclusion that, for teachers to embrace the three propositions of understanding and identities, teachers’ natural understanding identity should be promoted. This identity is underpinned by reflective practice and adaptation to what works in their day-to-day practice as teachers.
... Given the apparent polysemy of the term curriculum to refer to either a study plan or a subject plan (Montoya-Vargas, 2013;Kelly, 2004;Stern, 1983), I clarify that, for the purposes of this article, the term curriculum is understood from a comprehensive definition that encompasses the philosophical and ideological assumptions underlying the pedagogical processes, the objectives and contents, as well as the concatenation of forms of instruction and evaluation in a study plan (Stern, 1983;Núñez-París, 2008). In a more concrete perspective, curriculum here encompasses the three levels of planning proposed by Deng (2010): Institutional, programmatic, and classroom level. The remainder of this section correspond to presenting some implications for curriculum design. ...
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This paper showcases a literature review in 13 Colombian refereed journals, covering the last decade, from 2011 to 2021. Data were collected from the virtual platforms where each journal hosts published issues. A thematic analysis was conducted with the sample of papers. The purpose of the review was twofold. On the one hand, it aimed at establishing the main research concerns of Colombian scholars regarding the place of culture in the context of Foreign Language Teacher Education programs. On the other hand, the review aimed at exploring the implications for curriculum design in Colombia that can be drawn from culture-related literature produced by scholars in the last decade. Results suggest that the treatment of culture-related issues in Foreign Language Teacher Education programs has gained currency, although scholarship in the last decade has mainly focused on a diagnostic stage.
... The three interrelated domains of curriculum making described by Doyle (1992) and expanded on by Deng (2018Deng ( , 2020: the policy curriculum, the programmatic curriculum, and the classroom curriculum are not unlike these sites above. Deng (2010Deng ( , 2017 contends that these domains are not only inter-related but also inter-dependent, Priestley et al. (2021) talk about the how curriculum making at these sites is complex and multidimensional with porous borders between sites. A key challenge is for PSTs to locate themselves within this curriculum making space and to appreciate how the layers/domains or sites are inter-dependent and influence their professional practice. ...
Chapter
In this Chapter, I outline the complexity of curriculum making for Pre Service Teachers as they navigate sites where it happens, within the policy, programmatic and classroom domains, and make judgments on what content/knowledge to teach, and for what reason while they seek to bring the curriculum alive in fruitful experiences for the students they teach.
... As Deng points out, "A successful blending model must strike a balance between top-down and bottom-up approaches. It is necessary to recognize, on the one hand, the key role of teachers as agents of curriculum change and, therefore, the need for institutional and programmatic curriculum planning to guide, support, and enable curriculum change in the classroom level" (Deng, 2010). ...
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Curriculum reform is at the top of the education agenda today. Skills gaps between what society and the labor market need and what formal systems of education and training provide are growing. The curriculum is the primary instrument for education systems to translate what society needs in terms of human capital, into specific content, competencies, and skills. The curriculum reflects the standards of what students should know and be able to do by the end of their school and formative years. However, regardless of the approach education systems take to design their curriculum, there is not always a straight correspondence between the intended standards on paper (i.e., the intended curriculum), and the actual teaching and learning that happens in the classroom (i.e., the de facto curriculum). This report examines how different education systems inside and outside Latin America and the Caribbean have incorporated 21st century skills into their curriculum, and the enabling conditions to translate the intended curriculum into a de facto curriculum in the classroom. How people are educated and trained today will determine whether countries in the region will be able to transform and provide greater prosperity and opportunities for all.
Chapter
Curriculum making entails deliberative decision-making at the planning stage and in the work within the classroom. Deliberative decision-making requires the use of theory to illuminate and interpret specific issues and problems and involves fundamental questions of teachers thinking and teachers doing. In this Chapter I will outline the complexity of curriculum making for PSTs as they navigate sites where it happens, within the policy, programmatic and classroom domains, and make judgments on what content/knowledge to teach, and for what reason, while they seek to bring the curriculum alive in fruitful experiences for the students they teach.
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Background Caring for older adults is among the most challenging issue of public health and social care systems in modern societies. By enhancing the nursing curriculum, nursing students will be qualified to provide gerontology care, and they will be acknowledging and working to eliminate ageism from the health care system. Purpose This study explores nurses’ and nursing students’ knowledge and attitudes in caring for older adults and addresses the factors contributing to nurses’ perspectives. It also examines the nursing curriculum's contributions to nurses’ knowledge and attitudes and provides suggestions aimed at reconfiguring the nursing curriculum for comprehensive gerontology nursing care. Methods A mixed-method research design was utilized, and quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 90 nurses and nursing students through an online questionnaire. Data were analyzed via SPSS and NVivo 12 software programs. Results The results revealed that most nurses possess neutral attitudes toward caring for older patients, and their knowledge ranged from average to above-average levels. Statistical analysis revealed no statistically significant difference between gender and nurses’ attitudes or between gender and knowledge. Similarly, there was no statistically significant difference between work status and nurses’ attitudes. Results showed a statistically significant positive correlation between nurses’ attitudes and knowledge level. This study demonstrated the positive impact of the Canadian nursing curriculum on nurses’ knowledge and attitudes. Conclusion The current study recommends providing gerontology nursing courses as a mandatory separate course in nursing education to enhance nursing students’ knowledge and skills for high-quality gerontology nursing care.
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Salesian youth ministry in the post-Vatican II period changed from a faithful and repetitive education towards a critical and future-centered approach. This paradigm shift brought multiple risks and limitations. Focusing on organizational aspects, we analyze the underlying theories and their anthropological models, especially Management by Objectives. Then we turn back to the original and permanent criterion for any renewal – the experience of Don Bosco in the Valdocco Oratory. His leadership and management qualities, recent leadership concepts, solid bases of the Salesian Youth Ministry and creative experiments are sewn creatively together in an innovative proposal: 1. Creation of an integral anthropological framework; 2. Development of a set of virtues-qualities at the level of action mentality, shared leadership and operative management; 3. Proposal of a transformational project cycle that merges planning, community building and discernment.
Book
Change Forces With a Vengeance is the third in the chaos theory trilogy (now called complexity theory). The first two books focused on understanding the real complexity of educational reform in action. This book pushes even deeper by providing new insights and lessons of change concerning moral purpose, and what is called tri-level reform - the school and community, the local district and the state. It draws on reform initiatives across many levels and countries so that the ideas are grounded in the reality of actual projects and findings. Change Forces With a Vengeance is different from the previous two books in one major respect. Instead of being content with understanding complex system dynamics, it takes up the more daunting question of how systems can be changed for the better. How can we achieve large-scale reform and do it in a way that the conditions for sustainability are enhanced? What policy levers are needed, and what is the smallest number of sets of policies that will maximise impact? What is the role of new leadership in accomplishing sustainable, comprehensive reform? These questions and more are addressed in ways that are both deeply theoretical, and powerfully practical.
Book
The SAGE Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction is the first book in 15 years to comprehensively cover the field of curriculum and instruction. Editors F. Michael Connelly, Ming Fang He, and JoAnn Phillion, along with contributors from around the world, synthesize the diverse, real-world matters that define the field. This long-awaited Handbook aims to advance the study of curriculum and instruction by re-establishing continuity within the field while acknowledging its practical, contextual, and theoretical diversity.