Investigating How Facilitators Support Teachers' Shared Ownership During Elementary Collaborative Curriculum Design

• In Event: 61.031 - How Political, Social, and Institutional Contexts Matter for Teacher Learning

Abstract

Collaborative curriculum design (co-design) aims to develop a sense of shared ownership among teachers so that sharing, reflecting and planning become valued processes that teachers use beyond formal professional development settings. Research has revealed, however, that co-design processes are best fostered with the support of a facilitator. This study investigated the understudied question regarding how facilitators encourage (or hinder) the development of shared ownership during co-design. Discourse analyses revealed instances where facilitators actively (re)negotiated their own roles and identities in order to promote teachers’ individual contributions and thus teacher ownership of the curricular problem addressed. However, teacher ownership of the processes of co-design seem to have been hindered by facilitators’ focus on organizational constraints. Implications for future facilitation are discussed.

Authors

• Stephanie Beck, McGill University

• Chao Zhang, McGill University

• nilou baradaran, McGill University

• Alain Breuleux, McGill University