Managing curriculum change and 'ontological uncertainty' in tertiary education
Keesing-Styles, Linda; Nash, Simon; Ayres, Robert
Date
2013Citation:
Keesing-Styles, L., Nash, S., & Ayres, R. (2013). Managing curriculum change and 'ontological uncertainty' in tertiary education. Higher Education Research & Development Society of Australasia, 32 (1), 1-14. DOI:10.1080/07294360.2013.841655Permanent link to Research Bank record:
https://hdl.handle.net/10652/2389Abstract
Curriculum reform at institutional level is a challenging endeavour. Those charged with leading this process will encounter both enthusiasm and multiple obstacles to teacher engagement including the particularly complex issue of confronting existing teacher identities. At Unitec Institute of Technology (Unitec), the ‘Living Curriculum’ initiative focused on whole-of-institution curriculum renewal and, in the process, acknowledged and addressed teacher beliefs and practices that variously supported and contested both the initiative itself and the professional development offerings that accompanied it. The related research project identified factors and processes that unsettle teachers, rendering them ‘insecure’, and strategies that have proven effective in supporting teachers through significant change in conceptions of curriculum, teaching and learning.