Teachers in the Lead in Dutch National Curriculum Reform: Lessons Learned

• In Event: 47.077 - Teacher Agency as a Complex and Emergent Phenomenon: International Perspectives

Abstract

1. Objectives or purposes
The question for this contribution is, "What are experiences with teacher agency in the Dutch curriculum renewal process?" The renewal of the 4-18 curriculum framework in the Netherlands relies profoundly on teacher agency. After a countrywide debate, nine teacher teams are developing building blocks of knowledge and skills at various stages in education for nine curriculum areas. These building blocks will form the basis of the redesign of core objectives. The teacher teams met during four three-day sessions in 2018. In between, they collected feedback from schools, experts and stakeholders. All teams have a curriculum coach.
2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
The study adopts an ecological approach to teacher agency (Priestley, Biesta & Robinson, 2015), emphasizing the interplay of individual capacity based on past experiences, abilities to envisage future opportunities and present possibilities and constraints. This leads to three sub-questions: What are teachers past experiences with national curriculum design? What are their aspirations? And what possibilities and constraints do they encounter?
3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
The study uses a case study approach with teacher teams as cases. For each case, data are collected with external process evaluations, questionnaires, interviews and document analysis. By using various data sources and methods the data are triangulated which improves the study's strength.
4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
With respect to teachers' experiences and future aspirations data are based on external process evaluations, school visit reports and interviews with all coaches. Data on the present constraints and possibilities are based on external process evaluations, session questionnaires and interviews with coaches.
5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
Analysis of interim results show diversity in outcomes. For example, the digital literacy team came up with rather extensive outcomes early on, whereas the social sciences team needed more time to develop first drafts. Relating these results to teacher agency brings in nuanced insights. None of the teachers could rely on curriculum design experiences at the national level and all teachers had future aspirations. However, the digital literacy team was able to act freely as their area is a new field. The social science team, responsible for an area consisting of various subjects with longstanding histories, needed more time for sense-making. Differences between the curriculum areas led to differences in teacher agency, that need to be addressed.
6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
This study examines the curriculum renewal endeavors in the Netherlands by relating the approach to the concept of teacher agency. We also reflect on what this endeavor ‘brings’ to the participating teachers, e.g. resources, constraints, that may stimulate or hinder teacher agency. The lessons learned are insightful to similar efforts in countries around the world. The scholarly significance sits in the contributions to the conceptualization of teacher agency in curriculum design efforts at the national level.
References
Priestley, M., Biesta, G. & Robinson, S. (2015). Teacher Agency: An Ecological Approach. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Authors

• Nienke Nieveen, SLO - The Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development

• Elvira Folmer, The Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development

• Sanne Tromp, SLO - The Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development