Joseph Schwab claimed that only teachers are capable of translating scholarly theory into
curriculum, as only they have knowledge of and are able to co-ordinate its four cornerstones of
subject matter, learners, context and the teacher. Organised around Schwab’s heuristic, this thesis
explores from an ecological perspective the curriculum making practices of seven experienced,
effective teachers of adult ESOL over the trajectory of a course that each one taught. While
normative advice in second language teacher education texts encourages a more systems-based
approach to curriculum development, there is increasing awareness in research-based literature
that the instructional curriculum is in fact an interactive construction played out in a dynamic,
non-linear process and particularised to a certain context and group of learners. This evidencebased
study aims to illustrate how teachers engage with written curriculum sources, classroom
and cultural contexts, their own theories of practice and the developing understandings and
wishes of learners as they make the instructional curriculum. Data were collected from guided
pre-course and post-course interviews with teachers as well as persistent, debriefing-type
interviews throughout the courses, supported by course documentation and teaching materials.
Themes emerging from the data and from relevant literature were coded and analysed
qualitatively.
Findings of this study illuminate significant aspects of teachers’ curriculum making
practices, including the weaving of conceptual content onto the timeframe of the courses,
teachers’ efforts to achieve coherence, balance and variety in the instructional curriculum, and the
importance of time and process. They emphasise the central role of the teacher as synthesiser of
a variety of considerations, and provide evidence of the rich and complex understandings of
teachers’ professional knowledge in action. They also show the fundamental importance of good
cognitive and affective rapport between teacher and learners, and the need for teachers to
constantly monitor and adjust the instructional curriculum according to learners’ developmental
needs, while at the same time taking into account a unique constellation of influences from its
micro- and macro- context. Implications for ESOL teachers and teacher educators of this more
detailed understanding of the instructional curriculum and of teachers’ professional knowledge
bases are also explored.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:AUCKLAND/oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/348 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Wette, Rosemary |
| Contributors | Associate Professor Roger Peddie, Dr. Richard Hamilton, Professor Rod Ellis |
| Publisher | ResearchSpace@Auckland |
| Source Sets | University of Auckland |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Scanned from print thesis |
| Rights | Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated., https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm, Copyright: The author |
| Relation | PhD Thesis - University of Auckland, UoA1506056 |
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