Developing a school based science curriculum: Teachers' work as language work

While it is widely recognised that language is consequential in teachers' work within the classroom, this thesis argues that it is also consequential in their curriculum development work outside the classroom. The study takes a phenomenological approach based in a single school, and the key data sources are transcripts of teachers' meetings held to develop a new curriculum framework for their junior secondary science classes. The broad aims of the study are to better understand the ways in which language is consequential in that work, to consider the implications these have for understanding school based curriculum development, and to identify the kinds of language-related knowledges that support teachers' curriculum development activity. The review of literature in Chapter 2 focuses initially on constructions of the teacher, the teaching labour process, and teacher knowledge, with an emphasis on the place of language within such constructions. Three currently dominant perspectives on curriculum development are then identified: curriculum development as task, as policy making and as teacher agency. While the consequentiality of language is implicit in each of these perspectives, it is not given any priority, suggesting the value of a phenomenological study focusing specifically on the consequentiality of language in teachers' school based curriculum development.

Grantor dc:publisher

Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia

Year dc:date

2006

Author dc:creator

• Barnett, Jennifer Ann

• dialogue
• Bakhtin
• indigenous
• Education

Repository record dc:identifier

https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/4

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ro.ecu.edu.au:theses-1004