Finnish teachers’ participation in local curriculum development: A study of processes in five school contexts

Abstract

For many years, teachers have been involved in developing the national curricula in Finland in various ways. Teachers’ involvement in curriculum design and implementation has, during the last national curriculum implementation process, increased locally to strengthen their confidence in and knowledge of the national curriculum’s multifaceted content. The purpose of this article is to broaden the knowledge of teacher involvement in the recent curriculum process in Finland; more specifically, to examine teachers’ participation in local curriculum work. In this qualitative study, interviews were the primary method used to gather empirical data. Hansén’s (1998) ideas of different levels of teacher professionalization are used as a framework for the analysis. The results show that ways of organizing involvement, management of involvement and use of time in the local curriculum process are crucial factors in teachers’ participation and partly determine their degree of participation. The results also suggest that teachers’ awareness of how the curriculum is linked to their collective collaborative and continuous work is relatively high, but it is not entirely clear how the four steps are integrated in the professional language.

Analysis of the Impact of the Merdeka Curriculum Policy on Stakeholders at Primary School

“…The school committee, parents, and community around the primary school were affected, especially when students underwent the Pancasila student profile project (Alsarrani et al, 2021;Heikkilä, 2020). This is a consequence of the Pancasila student profile project policy, which must involve the surrounding community.…”

“…(5) Avoid the syndrome of "do something, anything". a curriculum plan is necessary to focus effort, time, and money on healthy and rational content and activities (Heikkilä, 2020) (Ornstein & Hunkins, 2018). This also applies to changes to the curriculum in 2022 for primary schools, which the Ministry of Education and Culture is intensively socializing at this time.…”

Eksplorasi Pengetahuan Guru Ipa SMP Tentang Pembelajaran Berdiferensiasi Dalam Kurikulum Merdeka : Pengukuran Berdasarkan Complex Multiple-Choice Survey

“…Guru merupakan aktor penting yang mengejawantahkan tujuan kurikulum menjadi kurikulum aktual. Berbagai hasil studi masih menyebutkan peran penting pengetahuan guru terhadap kualitas proses pembelajaran sesuai tuntutan standar yang telah ditetapkan dalam kurikulum (Antoniou et al, 2015;Heikkilä, 2021;Krzychała, 2020). Sistem pengembangan kurikulum nasional yang diadopsi adalah transformasi kurikulum nasional menjadi kurikulum operasional yang dikembangkan oleh guru di satuan pendidikan dan menimbulkan dampak terhadap hasil belajar siswa sebagai wujud kurikulum yang diperoleh siswa (Pepin & Gueudet, 2018).…”

“…dalam mencapai mutu yang baik dalam mengembangkan budaya mutu sekolah dan proses belajar pada tataran praktis (Antoniou et al, 2015;Heikkilä, 2021). Pengembangan sekolah yang digerakkan oleh guru dapat didasarkan pada proses penciptaan, orkestrasi seluruh variasi instruksional, kurikuler, teknologi, dan transformasi pengetahuan profesional yang dilakukan oleh para guru itu sendiri (Krzychała, 2020).…”

Teacher-Tailored Classroom Observation for Professional Growth of EFL Instructors: An Exploratory Case Study

“…To this end, a variety of PD forms have been introduced and practiced. Some examples of these include exploratory action research (e.g., Akcan et al 2019;Dikilitaş and Çomoglu, 2022), critical friend groups (e.g., Carlson, 2019;Vo and Mai Nguyen, 2010), lesson study (e.g., Cajkler et al, 2014;Hurd and Licciardo-Musso, 2005;Uştuk and Çomoglu, 2021), reflection groups (e.g., Aydın and Çomoglu, 2023;Mayoral, 2014), professional learning communities (e.g., Goodyear et al, 2019;Owen, 2016), curriculum study groups (e.g., Heikkilä, 2021;Unlu, 2018), and mentoring (e.g., Gjedia and Gardinier, 2018;Suchánková and Hrbáčková, 2017;Walters et al, 2019). CO has been utilized as a tool in some of these contemporary forms of PD.…”