Curriculum change as transformational learning

Through an evaluation of an institution-wide curriculum change process, this paper analyses how strategic policy is variously enacted in departmental communities. Linguistic ethnography of public, institutional and internal policy documents illuminates departments’ engagement with the change process. With curriculum change positioned as a disorienting dilemma, transformational learning theory provides a lens to analyse the departments’ alignment with the intention of the curriculum change policy. The paper explores the extent to which departments transformed from a disciplinary content-based and high-stakes examination approach to the curriculum to incorporating broader institutional aims and active learning theories into disciplinary language, pedagogy and practices. Three stages of engagement are identified through an evaluation rubric, offering a framework to assess curriculum change initiatives. Implications for educational leaders include the need to integrate institutional strategy with disciplinary experts and expertise and the importance of language adoption as a precursor to implementation

Schola

In this book, we present the results of a two-year project that was carried out by partners in five European countries with the financial support of the EU Erasmus+ programme. The project addressed young people and mentors and helped them understand the importance of non-formal and informal education, supported by volunteering, in preventing early school leaving. In this way, the project team put special attention on recognising the key competences that young people acquire through their voluntary work. The initial goal of the project was to test ideas and concepts at the local levels – to see which approaches are the most appropriate in a certain country, socio-cultural framework and even on a micro-level of schools and other institutions involved in the project. The book offers theoretical contribution on the topic of the project as well as presents the working process from individual countries – Belgium, France, Italy, Poland and Slovenia