Trust, Accountability, and Mandated Curriculum: A Field Study of Three Hawaii Public Schools

• In Event: Roundtable Session 56
  In Roundtable Session: Rethinking Curriculum in Nation-States

Abstract

In contrast to the culture of accountability rampant in public schools today, we know that successful schools foster a culture of trust. If this is true, what institutional practices damage trust? Using a grounded theory approach and analyzing the data from field notes on teacher in-services, emails, meetings, and classroom observations, I observed the experiences of four teachers at three different schools using mandated curriculum. As a result of mandated curriculum, these teachers experienced additional hours spent not helping students, felt disinclined to participate in additional professional development, and experienced feelings of powerless. In order to maintain a culture of trust, this paper proposes incorporating teacher feedback when implementing mandatory curriculum at the school, district or national level.

Author

• Jacquelyn J Chappel, University of Hawaii - Manoa