Teachers, Curriculum Innovation, and Policy Formation

Abstract

It is commonly understood that policy makers make curriculum policy and teachers implement it. Some teachers, however, have been in on the ground floor of curriculum policy development. Driven by events in their life histories and teaching contexts, these teachers develop and teach original course material in their own classrooms. Over time they begin to work collaboratively on further course development, secure organizational support to ensure adequate resources and legitimacy to disseminate these new curricular forms, lobby for course acceptance by educational jurisdictions, and help establish course infrastructure such as teacher professional learning opportunities and textbooks. In other words, in some cases, teachers may participate actively in every stage of policy development and practice. This article discusses the phenomenon of teacher‐driven curriculum innovation as a process of individual, social, and political evolution. It describes three cases of secondary‐level courses developed by teachers in Ontario, Canada, and formalized in district or provincial policy. In doing so, the article extends the notion of teacher agency from its established arenas of classrooms and schools and into the realm of policy making.

Notes

Notes

Rethinking Schools is a nationally prominent publisher of educational materials, committed to equity and to the vision that public education is central to the creation of a humane, caring, multiracial democracy. Our Schools/Our Selves is a quarterly journal on education that covers topics such as Aboriginal education, anti‐racism classroom programs, sex education, peace studies, commercialism, environmental education, child care, and authentic classroom assessment. Green Teacher provides curriculum ideas for teachers committed to environmental education.

In Ontario, “interdisciplinary courses” can be developed by bringing together curriculum expectations from two or more existing provincial courses in different disciplines. They require formal approval at both school district and provincial levels. Once established, they are available for any teacher in the province to teach (Ontario Ministry of Education, ).

In Ontario, “locally developed courses” are developed at the school district level and essentially “owned” by that school district, although other districts can ask for permission to mount them in their own schools. Like interdisciplinary courses, they are based on the “curriculum expectations” of existing provincial courses and go through formal approval processes at both school district and provincial levels. Locally developed courses must be reviewed and reapproved every 3 years (Ontario Ministry of Education, ).

In Ontario, curriculum expectations are “the knowledge and skills that students are expected to acquire, demonstrate, and apply in their class work, on tests, and in various other activities on which their achievement is assessed and evaluated. Two sets of expectations are listed for each strand, or broad curriculum area, of each course. The overall expectations describe in general terms the knowledge and skills that students are expected to demonstrate by the end of each course. The specific expectations describe the expected knowledge and skills in greater detail” (Ontario Ministry of Education, , p. 11).

Elective courses are included in Ontario’s curriculum guides and can be offered in schools where there is a confluence of student demand, teacher expertise and principal support. There are few spaces in students’ schedules for nonrequired courses, and elective courses face competition by other electives.