Reflection of teachers' feelings of curriculum ownership in their curriculum definitions: The example of Estonia

Abstract

Teachers' feeling of curriculum ownership has been found to be crucial for predicting the success of educational reform initiatives. This study aimed to examine how teachers' feelings of curriculum ownership are reflected in their statements about what they mean by the term ‘curriculum’. We analysed written questionnaire responses from 760 schoolteachers across Estonia. Our qualitative content analysis demonstrated that almost half of the qualified responses defined a curriculum as a mandatory, prescriptive document which does not allow for teachers' high feeling of curriculum ownership. Nearly one‐third of the respondents expressed a moderate feeling of ownership, describing a curriculum as an external guideline but also seeing their own role as active in curriculum implementation. Only about one‐tenth of the respondents expressed a high feeling of ownership in their definitions. In the context of the recent history of curriculum policy in the former socialist European countries, we conclude that the overwhelming rhetoric of the early 1990s related to prioritising teachers' curriculum ownership was in practice quickly and successfully subordinated to globally rising regulatory policies that prioritised external evaluation, benchmarking and standardisation. We will discuss the mechanisms of this phenomenon and the potential avenues for enhancing teachers' curriculum ownership in the context of current education policy realities.