Standards-Based Curriculum and Teachers' Understanding of Knowledge: A Critical Exploration

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Thirteen
  In Roundtable Session: Challenges of Accountability, Activism, and Standards in Educative Spaces (Table 4)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the implications of a standards-based curriculum for what constitutes knowledge in different teaching contexts. The research question is: how is the logic of uniformity within curriculum standards re-contextualized into actual teaching in different school environments, focusing on the concepts of knowledge underpinning the teaching? The accountability movement is characterized by seemingly simple and reasonable logic that defines objectives to specify what schooling should result in for learners and evaluates the result. In reality, however, the re-contextualization of subject curriculum to teaching practice is a complex and multi-dimensional process. The analysis reveals two approaches to curricula, integrated and performance, underpinned by two different views of knowledge: transactional realism and social realism.

Author

• Ninni Wahlstrom, Linnaeus University
  Presenting Author