The Shifting Sands of Curriculum Development: A Case Study of the Development of the Years 1 to 10 - The Arts Curriculum for Queensland Schools

Abstract

Curriculum development is a complex, problematic and challenging field. Nowadays educators and curriculum developers acknowledge that understanding of curriculum and approaches to curriculum development must be transformed in response to the rapidly changing and increasingly diverse world in which we live.

This study focuses on a particular curriculum development project, the Years 1-10 The Arts Curriculum for Queensland Schools, which was undertaken at the cusp of 21st century. While grounded in a technical model of curriculum development the project was influenced by reconceptualist concepts, particularly in terms of the valuing of diversity, and extensive and ongoing consultation which involved stakeholders in the construction of the curriculum. It was constrained by power disjunctions between contributing authorities, and the existing “model of the state”.

This thesis uses a narrative case study approach to document and analyse the process of curriculum development on this particular project. I worked as a participant-observer for the duration of the curriculum development project and have interwoven, into a single narrative, the personal, systemic and political influences on the developing curriculum.

The initial research question focused particularly on significant influences and constraints that contributed to the development of this arts curriculum. However, during the process of analysis, a second important question emerged: ‘What does it mean to be a curriculum developer involved in systemic curriculum construction at the beginning of the 21st century? In seeking to answer this second question I draw on reconceptualist approaches to curriculum theorising.

A review of literature encompasses curriculum theory, suggestions for curriculum development, outcomes-based-education, arts and drama education, and progression in drama.

The body of the thesis documents, analyses and critiques this curriculum development process in three phases: developing the design brief, constructing the outcomes and syllabus, and the trial/pilot process in schools. At the end of each phase important influences and constraints are identified.

I offer three insights emerging from this research which may be of value to future curriculum developers. The first of these is the proposal that we “curate” curriculum rather than create it. Curate derives from the Latin curare: to care, and curatorship is characterised by the processes of selection, organisation and “looking after” the items in a collection or exhibition. As curriculum developers we construct the curriculum out of existing materials, selecting some and discarding others. We organise and share the curriculum so that others can access and “see” things anew. I also suggest a framework for conversation about curriculum development which sees dialogue, recursivity and the valuing of diversity as essential underpinnings of the process. Finally I suggest desirable qualities of a collaborative curriculum developer. These qualities assist the developer to navigate the “shifting sands” that are inherent in any curriculum development process.

This study calls for increased attention to the nature and processes of consultation. It highlights the importance of teachers’ contributions to systemic curriculum development and the need for mechanisms of support that enable and value diversity of input.