Curriculum making in Wales: what does it mean to be purpose-led?

Abstract

Several countries are engaged in processes of curriculum reform which increasingly position the teacher as a curriculum maker. While this can bring rich possibilities for locally responsive curriculum making, the process of curriculum making itself is not intuitive and requires carefully considered support for teachers, together with clarity about the nature of the curriculum and the purposes of the wider reform process.

In this webinar, we discuss the work of the Camau i’r Dyfodol (Steps to the Future) project (University of Wales Trinity Saint David and University of Glasgow). The project ran for three years, working collaboratively with Welsh Government and education professionals across the system to support the realisation of the new Curriculum for Wales (CfW). This curriculum places progression in learning at the heart of curriculum making, guided by the ‘Four Purposes’ which are both the starting point and aspiration for schools. The project was originally designed to support shared understanding of progression and assessment. Evidence from the early phases of the project showed that people were understanding and realising CfW in different and competing ways. Shared understanding of progression and assessment was not possible without first clarifying the curriculum model that CfW aligns with.

We will discuss how curriculum theory was used as part of co-construction activity to provide the conceptual grounding (Sinnema et al., 2020) needed for curriculum making that aligns with the Curriculum for Wales framework. Our co-construction approach for curriculum making was based on the design team approach (Handelzalts et al., 2019) and the concept of complementary expertise (Brand & Karvonen, 2007).

We conclude by reflecting on the findings from the project as a whole to discuss what these suggest for curriculum reform which positions teachers as curriculum makers.

Bios

David Morrison-Love is a Senior Lecturer in Education and Joint Director of the University of Glasgow Educational Assessment Network (UGEAN). He is also a member of the International Educational Assessment Network (IEAN), serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Technology Education and is a member of the British Curriculum Forum Steering Group. His work explores how curriculum, assessment and pedagogy inter-relate. The focus for this work ranges from teacher reasoning and classroom practice to large-scale educational reform and system change. He has a particular interest in relational understandings of assessment and pedagogy developed from a non-performative and non-positivistic stance.

Kara Makara Fuller is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow and joint director of the University of Glasgow Education Assessment Network. She teaches and supervises on the MSc in Psychological Studies programme, leads the Human Development course for our online MSc Psychology students, and contributes lectures on child development to the MEduc programme. Her research focuses on understanding how social interactions in educational settings influence the development of motivation and learning, particularly within the contexts of academic help seeking, assessment and feedback, achievement goals and interpersonal connections.

Fiona Patrick is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and a member of the University of Glasgow Educational Assessment Network. She teaches on courses in initial teacher education and on the MSc/MEd programme where she lectures on assessment in higher education. Her understanding of teaching, curriculum, and pedagogy is informed by the work of Lawrence Stenhouse, Wolfgang Klafki, John Dewey and Lee Shulman. Fiona’s research and scholarship is focused around two themes: i) the development of pedagogical reasoning as a core professional knowledge in teacher education and ii) understanding assessment in relation to curriculum and pedagogy. She has research expertise in qualitative methods, particularly reflexive thematic analysis and integrated literature reviews.