Shared Sense-making in Curriculum Reform: Orchestrating the Local Curriculum Work

ABSTRACT

This study aims to gain a better understanding of the Finnish national curriculum reform by examining how the educational practitioners, at the district level, orchestrate the shared sense-making concerning the reform work in their school districts. Qualitative focus group data was collected from 12 groups, throughout Finland, that were responsible for orchestrating curriculum reform work at the district level. Results showed that curriculum reform steering groups recognized the importance of orchestrating shared sense-making. They strived to develop functional, context sensitive, and shared strategies for reform implementation across their districts. They employed a range of strategies for managing, navigating, and regulating the shared sense-making of the local curriculum work.

KEYWORDS:

• Curriculum reform
• school development
• shared sense-making; focus group

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Janne Pietarinen http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4696-1977

Kirsi Pyhältö http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8766-0559

Tiina Soini http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0637-8931

Notes

1 The municipalities were sampled on the basis of national statistics gathered by Statistics Finland (2013).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Academy of Finland (research projects: 2050076; 295022).