Journal of Curriculum Studies 46卷6期文章

1. The Role of Theory in Teacher Education: Reconsidered from a Student Teacher Perspective

Author: Ela Sjølie

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies 46.6 (December 2014) : 729-750.

Abstract: With the persistent criticism of teacher education as a backdrop, this article explores the common perception that teacher education is too theoretical. This article takes the view that the student teachers’ assumptions regarding the concept of theory affect how they engage with theory during initial teacher education. Using a qualitative approach, this study examines student teachers’ conceptualizations of the nature and role of theory in teacher education. The results indicate conflicts between student teachers’ assumptions about theory in general and pedagogical theories in particular, and also between a narrow conception of the nature of theory and a more nuanced understanding of the purpose of theory. Student teachers’ encounter with pedagogy as an academic discipline—with a different epistemology than the one they know from their discipline-specific studies—seems to cause considerable struggle that often ends in a devaluation and denigration of theory in teacher education. The implications of these findings for teacher education are discussed.

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2. Analysing Teachers’ Curriculum Implementation from Integrity and Actor-oriented Perspectives

Author: William R. Penuel, Rachel S. Phillips and Christopher J. Harris

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies 46.6 (December 2014) : 751-777.

Abstract: Curriculum materials and knowledge about curricular purposes and structures are valuable tools that teachers often draw upon to organize instruction and facilitate student learning. Careful analysis of teachers’ curriculum implementation and the decision-making that undergirds their curriculum use is critical for fully understanding enactment. This paper compares how integrity analyses of implementation of curriculum materials and actor-oriented analysis of teachers’ curriculum use can help researchers, teacher educators, and curriculum designers interpret teachers’ decisions about what aspects of new materials to use and how to use such materials. Drawing on evidence from teacher interviews and observations, we compare two teachers’ enactments of a new elementary-level environmental biology unit. Our analyses of integrity point to differences in teachers’ adaptations with respect to their consistency with the purposes and structures of curriculum materials as construed by designers. By contrast, our actor-oriented analysis explain how the teachers’ different approaches to interpreting the goals and structures of the curriculum unit partly account for patterns in their enactment in ways that can inform refinements to materials and the design of professional development supports for teachers. In so doing, we show how implementation integrity and actor-oriented analyses offer complementary perspectives to inform curriculum research and development.

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3. A changed Language of Education with New Actors and Solutions: the Authorization of Promotion and Prevention Programmes in Swedish Schools

Author: Andreas Bergh and Tomas Englund

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies 46.6 (December 2014) : 778-797.

Abstract: This article demonstrates how changes in the language of Swedish education policy have opened up a new social perception of education, in which space has been created for new actors, models and solutions in terms of managing activities in schools. Specifically, it seeks to illustrate how various promotion and prevention programmes have been authorized and disseminated without critical inquiry or resistance in the education sector. To this end, we analyse how the specific, essentially contested concepts of health, value base and communication have been employed in authoritative national documents over the two last decades. For our analysis, we draw on speech act theory, with a focus on linguistic performativity, as we have been interested in analysing how concrete authoritative actors have ‘performed’ various arguments. The analysis helps us to understand how the linguistic force originating from authoritative agencies can be used by different actors as a way to legitimize their arguments and actions. The results demonstrate how different national authorities, as a consequence of their use of the three concepts analysed, have contributed to the establishment of promotion and prevention programmes in education.

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4. Comparative Study of Teaching Content in Teacher Education Programmes in Canada, Denmark, Finland and Singapore

Author: Jens Rasmussen and Martin Bayer

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies 46.6 (December 2014) : 798-818.

Abstract: This article presents the results of a comparative study of the content in selected teacher education programmes for primary and lower secondary teachers in Canada, Denmark, Finland and Singapore. First and foremost, the study is a comparison between teacher education programmes in, on the one hand, Canada, Finland and Singapore, all of which score highly in international comparisons such as PISA and TIMMS, and on the other hand Denmark, which receives average scores, but it also functions as a comparison between all four countries. The study covers the following subjects: pedagogy and mathematics. The study does not offer proof of any clear difference between the Danish teacher education programmes and those found in the top-performing countries. Two main findings are: (1) philosophically based professional knowledge, much of which is normative in character, forms an extensive part of the body of professional knowledge within the Danish teacher education programmes, which is not true of the programmes in the Top-3 countries and (2) the programmes in Canada and Singapore more frequently employ literature combining research-based knowledge with practical guidance and experiences, while the programmes in Denmark and Finland keep these knowledge forms separate.

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5. Let’s Begin with Ourselves: Attempting Resonance Responses in the Exchange of Researchers’ Professional Autobiographies

Author: Paulo Padilla-Petry, Fernando Hernández-Hernández and  Amalia Creus

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies 46.6 (December 2014) : 819-838.

Abstract: The economic, social, cultural, technological and labour changes experienced by Spanish universities in the last 40years have had their impact on the professional lives of the university teachers. Our methodological decision to study, through the construction of life histories, how scholars cope with social and institutional changes in their professional lives led us to start by writing our professional autobiographies which were followed by a resonance practice in which each of us wrote a response to a partner’s autobiography. Results show that our responses appeared to have three different functions: give some feedback to our partners, tell our group our position about our partner’s autobiography and make sense of it for us. It became clear that writing about our resonance responses is a difficult task for academics like us and that our texts were bound by the position each one occupied in the research group and at the university. Our experience lets us rethink the interweaving of reflexivity, personal practical knowledge and resonance. The tension between our academic rationality and our efforts to give spontaneous resonance responses shows that even with narrative researchers, changing one’s personal practical knowledge may conflict with a rationalist point of view.

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6. Competency-Based Training in International Perspective: Comparing the Implementation Processes towards the Achievement of Employability

Author: Peter Boahin, Jose Eggink and Adriaan Hofman

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies 46.6 (December 2014) : 839-858.

Abstract: This article undertakes a comparison of competency-based training (CBT) systems in a number of countries with the purpose of drawing lessons to support Ghana and other countries in the process of CBT implementation. The study focuses on recognition of prior learning and involvement of industry since these features seem crucial in achieving employability. The study shows that industry is involved in the training activities. However, recognition of prior learning (RPL) requires innovative techniques, such as e-portfolio and on-line facility, to provide greater awareness and quality information to assist learners to produce work-related evidence. Performance criteria in RPL assessment must cover situational contexts and contingency management skills to enhance flexibility and adaptable labour force in the event of changes in workplace practices.