TY - JOUR
T1 - Seeing the 'new' in light of the 'old'
T2 - Evolving interpretations of a new national English curriculum
AU - Orland-Barak, Lily
AU - Kemp, Judy
AU - Ben-Or, Terry
AU - Levi, Ziona
PY - 2004
Y1 - 2004
N2 - This 2-year longitudinal study explores the process by which three populations of practitioners (mentors, co-ordinators, and teachers) interpreted a national curriculum involving a change in policies for teaching English as a foreign language. The analysis revealed that the process of managing the changes brought about by the new curriculum yielded 'dialogues of practice' between 'old' and 'new'. These dialogues engaged mentors, co-ordinators, and teachers alike in mediating between new understandings and old ones. It addresses the ways in which they made sense of the terminology of the new curriculum in light of the old curriculum, negotiated between new pedagogical content knowledge and ingrained conceptions of subject-matter teaching, adapted old understandings of testing to new conceptions of performance-assessment processes, and mediated between their need to preserve a sense of professional competence while feeling destabilized as 'novices' as they confronted innovative curricular practices. Participants' strategic need to 'survive' the changes resulted in the development of networks to support professional exchange and assist teachers in managing their way through the uncertainty of curricular change.
AB - This 2-year longitudinal study explores the process by which three populations of practitioners (mentors, co-ordinators, and teachers) interpreted a national curriculum involving a change in policies for teaching English as a foreign language. The analysis revealed that the process of managing the changes brought about by the new curriculum yielded 'dialogues of practice' between 'old' and 'new'. These dialogues engaged mentors, co-ordinators, and teachers alike in mediating between new understandings and old ones. It addresses the ways in which they made sense of the terminology of the new curriculum in light of the old curriculum, negotiated between new pedagogical content knowledge and ingrained conceptions of subject-matter teaching, adapted old understandings of testing to new conceptions of performance-assessment processes, and mediated between their need to preserve a sense of professional competence while feeling destabilized as 'novices' as they confronted innovative curricular practices. Participants' strategic need to 'survive' the changes resulted in the development of networks to support professional exchange and assist teachers in managing their way through the uncertainty of curricular change.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33845708346&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/0022027032000073859
DO - 10.1080/0022027032000073859
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33845708346
SN - 0022-0272
VL - 36
SP - 321
EP - 339
JO - Journal of Curriculum Studies
JF - Journal of Curriculum Studies
IS - 3
ER -