Geography teachers and curriculum making in “changing times”

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the controls and influences over geography teachers' curriculum making. A tension is identified between the teacher's agency to “make” a geography curriculum and a controlling social–economic climate of accountability, performance pressure and technological change which limits the teacher's agency. The paper argues that teachers are responding to this tension by the coping strategy of “banding together” both at the school level and in wider communities. The extent of teachers' reliance on other people in curriculum making is such that curriculum making can be described as becoming “hyper-socialised”.

KEYWORDS:

• Curriculum
• geography
• teacher
• control
• society

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.