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ABSTRACT
The term school-based curriculum development (SBCD) implies that teachers are to innovate and customize school curricula according to their local needs. This also means that SBCD requires co-constructive work among schools’ key stakeholders in the school curriculum development process. While much work has made known on SBCD in Western contexts, much less is known in non-Western contexts. This paper reports on key findings pertaining to SBCD drawn from a case study of a primary school in Singapore. Singapore makes for an interesting case as education policymakers encourage schools to innovate their curriculum yet maintaining a steep culture of academic achievement and control over standards across schools. The study involved data collection from non-participant observations of classroom lessons, teacher group meetings, and focused group discussions. A salient finding that had emerged from the study is that the societal value for pragmatism underpins the processes of SBCD.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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Notes on contributors
Salleh Hairon
Salleh Hairon is Associate Professor with the Policy and Leadership Studies Academic Group at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research interests center on school leadership for teacher learning in communities comprising areas such as distributed leadership, teacher leadership, professional learning communities, teacher professional development and action research.
Catherine Siew Kheng Chua
Catherine Siew Kheng Chua is Associate Professor with the Werklund School Education, University of Calgary. Her research interests include language planning and policy, globalisation and educational reform, globalisation and social change and 21st century competencies.
Wei Leng Neo
Wei Leng Neo is a Research Associate with the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Academic Group at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research focus and interest is in curriculum innovation and development.
