Early career primary teachers' curriculum-making experiences: Enablers and constraints to knowledge-led forms of curriculum-making

Abstract

With global trends focussed on standardisation of curriculum and increased teacher accountability, it has become commonplace for curriculum to be viewed simplistically as a product. While all teachers engage in forms of classroom curriculum-making, questions remain as to what this looks like within an educational landscape that continues to portray teaching as a purely technical activity. This paper explores two Australian early career primary teachers' experiences of curriculum-making, drawing attention to the enabling and constraining conditions which shape such experiences. We consider the impact of these enabled and constrained experiences on early career teachers' aspirations and ongoing development as knowledge-led curriculum-makers. We contend that such constrained experiences limit opportunities for early career teachers to develop professional identities as knowledge-led curriculum-makers and continue to reinforce unhelpful representations of teachers as ‘technicians’.