Reflecting upon researchers’ and policy-makers’ tensions in the collaborative inquiry process: ‘what do different commonplaces contribute to curriculum deliberation?’

Abstract

This collaborative inquiry, as part of action research, is framed within the unique context of two researchers working closely alongside two policy-makers (research collaborators) to explore how teachers could enter more profoundly into a curriculum discourse. Drawing from Reid’s concept of curriculum deliberation as located within institutional settings, the inquiry was purposed to elucidate physical education teachers’ perceptions of outdoor education (OE), in order to integrate the teachers’ perspectives within the first formal OE curriculum implementation in Singapore. This article reflects upon tensions that emerged in our inquiry process; these reflections were noted in journal entries, audio-recordings and notes of meetings and teacher seminars, as well as teachers’ interview transcripts. We, the researchers, employed a conceptual change framework to identify and confront the tensions, and consequently searched for further clarification and alternative ways of interpreting the tensions. In transforming the tensions into our positive learning experiences, we co-generated new knowledge through renewed understandings developed with our Ministry of Education research collaborators who were directly involved in the conceptualization and implementation of the new curriculum. The tensions include teachers’ gaps in understandings of OE; concern that the current project findings may be ‘too late’ to influence the design of the new curriculum; and power differences existing between researchers, policy-makers and teachers. Our reflections invoked deliberation about the teachers’ contribution of knowledge to inquiry and curriculum deliberation processes. We illustrated how such a deliberation could not be divorced from critical examination of the roles of, and kinds of knowledge contributed by, policy-makers and researchers.

Keywords:

• Collaborative inquiry
• curriculum
• outdoor education
• conceptual change
• tensions
• reflection

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor and reviewers for their valuable feedback. They express their gratitude to the teachers and seminar participants who generously shared their insights in order to enrich the authors’ understandings of OE in Singapore. The authors also thank Dr Susanna Ho, Ms Chew Ting Ching, Dr Jennifer Tan, Dr Imelda Caleon and Mr Tan Hong Boon for their support of the inquiry process.