Exploring teachers’ curriculum decision making: insights from history education

Abstract

This paper explores teachers' decision making by examining the topics that 11 history teachers from ten schools in England chose to teach and how they approached teaching these topics. Data were gathered from curriculum documents and semi-structured interviews in which teachers' topic choices and approaches to history were explored. Most teachers adopted a disciplinary approach to history teaching but one focused on analytical structures rather than processes. Additionally the findings suggest a large degree of uniformity in the topics chosen despite the freedom provided within the policy documents for history teaching in England. Few teachers had given much consideration to approaches that demonstrate the 'usability' of history for young people. This suggests a need to engage teachers more fully in robust curriculum debates given their central role in enacting curricula.

Curriculum coherence and teachers’ decision-making in Scottish high school history syllabi

“…While six of the 21 schools taught longitudinal overviews, in the others the past was framed as isolated and disconnected 'topics' within timetabled blocks of teaching. Scotland is far from unique in this respect, and similar phenomena have been observed in both New Zealand (Harris & Ormond, 2018) and England (Harris & Reynolds, 2018). However, the Scottish case seems to be particularly striking in at least two ways.…”

“…Again in England, Harris and Reynolds (2018) found that the level of conceptual clarity about content selection and curriculum design differs enormously between schools, but that an untheorized episodic approach which jumps between unconnected 'topics' dominates in many schools. A comparative study of New Zealand and England concluded bleakly that 'data from both countries reveals that few of the teachers consider the overall shape of what students would learn when planning' (Harris & Ormond, 2018, p. 12).…”

The rationale for subsidiarity as a principle applied within curriculum reform and its unintended consequences

“…Furthermore, although many teachers appear to welcome greater flexibility and freedom in relation to their choice of topics and how they engage students with subject knowledge, recent research on history teachers in England, who were given considerable choice of topics to study with students, revealed that few considered the relevance or ‘usability’, of their decisions for young people (Harris & Reynolds, ). Teachers well trained and inducted into modes of thought related to their respective specialised disciplines may struggle to put themselves in the place of young people whose daily experiences are influenced by diverse and complex sociological factors.…”

Y sail resymegol dros gymhwyso egwyddor sybsidiaredd wrth ddiwygio cwricwla a’i ganlyniadau anfwriadol

“…Yn ogystal â hyn, er ei bod yn ymddangos bod nifer mawr o athrawon yn croesawu mwy o ryddid a hyblygrwydd mewn perthynas â dewis topigau a meithrin diddordeb myfyrwyr mewn gwybodaeth pwnc, mae ymchwil ddiweddar ar athrawon hanes yn Lloegr, a gafodd ryddid helaeth i ddewis topigau i’w hastudio gyda myfyrwyr, wedi dangos mai ychydig o’r athrawon a oedd wedi ystyried perthnasedd, neu ‘ddefnyddioldeb’, eu penderfyniadau ar gyfer pobl ifanc (Harris a Reynolds, 2018). Mae’n bosibl y bydd athrawon a gafodd eu hyfforddi a’u trwytho mewn dulliau meddwl sy’n gysylltiedig â’u priod ddisgyblaethau arbenigol yn ei chael yn anodd gweld pethau o safbwynt pobl ifanc sy’n byw o ddydd i ddydd o dan ddylanwad ffactorau cymdeithasolegol amrywiol a chymhleth.…”