Collaborative curriculum design in teacher teams: Foundations

Abstract

This chapter serves as an introduction to the book. History shows that the intentions and ambitions of many curriculum innovations failed because the complexity of the design and implementation processes was often overlooked. Lack of teacher involvement in curriculum design processes is seen as an important cause for these disappointing outcomes. Several scholars have therefore called for more active involvement of (teams of) teachers in curriculum design processes. The first part of this chapter discusses the role of teachers in curriculum design, and how views about their involvement have evolved over time from reactive to more proactive involvement. Next, we examine how the products of curriculum design, curriculum materials, may contribute to teacher learning and curriculum enactment. We bring these two perspectives together in the final section where we use insights from sociocultural theory to conceptualize the key principles underlying collaborative curriculum design in teacher teams.