Teachers’ encounters with major disciplinary and curriculum change: a theoretical framework in the context of ICT and Computing

Abstract

The impact of teachers’ beliefs on effective curriculum change implementation is widely recognised. This study identifies the factors affecting the change process; developing and presenting a theoretical model of the process of curriculum change precipitated by disciplinary shift as perceived by the teachers experiencing the transformation. It was carried out in the context of, arguably the most significant disciplinary shift in the last two decades of the English National Curriculum: the movement from ICT to Computing. The research was founded on the views, beliefs and experiences of existing ICT teachers as they ‘lived through’ the planning and implementation of the new curriculum. The research followed an inductive interpretive approach to expose a theoretical model grounded in this data. This grounded research methodology is original in both its emphasis and context.
The model that emerges identifies that teachers’ beliefs act to form their enacted support of the new curriculum that manifested itself in a number of ways. The teachers’ beliefs that drive their enacted support form a complex interrelationship that involves’ their beliefs, regarding the nature of IT education and student ability; their perceptions of how the curriculum change would personally affect them and their stated support of the new curriculum. Each of these aspects has a number of intervening influences meaning that for each individual teacher there were both positive and negative forces acting on each. As the emergent model identifies how teachers respond to curriculum change the conclusions of this research have consequences for both teachers, and school leaders and policy makers. Additionally, in presenting existing ICT teachers’ beliefs regarding IT education, and how these were formed through their biographies and how they have influenced said teachers’ responses to the new curriculum this study establishes new knowledge and understanding of subject specialist teachers and their beliefs, in both ICT and other disciplinary areas.