The relationship between teachers and government in curriculum development in Korea and England

This thesis examines teachers' perceptions of the relationship between teachers and\ud government in the field of curriculum development, in the light of changes in the mode of\ud curriculum control under which teachers carry out their work in Korea and England. In\ud both countries, major recent legislation has brought about fundamental revisions of the\ud curriculum. In Korea, the 1992 sixth National Curriculum declared a decentralization of\ud curriculum development, ostensibly attempting to decrease government control over\ud teachers. In England, the 1988 Education Act imposed a national curriculum: this\ud represented an increase in government control over teachers.\ud The thesis begins with a review of theoretical work relating to modes of curriculum control\ud and professionalism. It then offers accounts of the historical and cultural context of\ud curriculum development and professionalism in Korea and England, providing overviews\ud of curriculum development, teacher education relating to curriculum development,\ud teachers' organizations, hierarchies in society and schools, gender differences in the\ud teaching profession, inspection of teachers, and teachers' relations with parents.\ud A central issue for the thesis is the idea of teachers' professionalism in relation to\ud government intervention in curriculum development. It is the main assumption of the study\ud that teachers' professionalism in the field of curriculum control can be best analysed\ud through an examination of the context in which it is embedded. Thus, this thesis involves\ud empirical studies of structured samples of six primary schools in Korea and nine primary\ud schools in England; questionnaires, interviews and case studies were administered in both\ud countries. These investigations focus on comparing the teachers' perceptions of curriculum\ud &-YQlppment. and professionalism in their different cultural contexts. Comparison serves\ud to improve contextual understanding of teachers' professionalism within two different\ud trends: centralization and decentralization.\ud Examination of the empirical data reveals both similarities and differences between\ud different teachers within each country, and also between teachers in the two countries.\ud Overall, Korean teachers feel that they have only a restricted role in implementing the new\ud curriculum in their own classroom, despite the recent change which introduced some\ud decentralization in curriculum policy.. Compared with this situation in Korea, despite\ud governmental intervention in curriculum development the majority of English teachers may\ud be characterized as still having an autonomous role in implementing the curriculum.\ud Although there were different orientations and degrees of control among both groups of\ud teachers, the belief in the desirability of teacher control of the curriculum has been a\ud dominant perspective with widespread acceptance in the two countries.\ud This thesis supports the view that teachers' professionalism is shaped by social, political,\ud educational and institutional cultures in a very complicated fashion, and cannot be\ud expected to change quickly or easily. It also demonstrates that teachers' professionalism\ud cannot be conceptualized simply in terms of movement along the continuum between\ud centralization and decentralization. The thesis argues that teachers' professionalism in\ud relation to government intervention is affected much more by-what teachers think, which\ud is shaped in their own cultural contexts, than by the nature of the change itself as defined\ud by the legislation/Accordingly, it suggests that the strategies for enhancing teachers'\ud professionalism in relation to curriculum development should be considered with reference\ud to the cultural contexts within which they are practised

Mapping the Reading Improvement Sector in New York City The Role of External Support Providers in Improving K-3 Reading Outcomes

This report shares the results of a project designed to help build the collective capacity and increase the impact of the external support providers working to improve K-3 reading outcomes in New York City public elementary schools. In the first phase of the project, we identified all the programs in what we call the K-3 reading improvement sector in NYC 2014-15. In the second phase, we examined the extent to which a sample of these programs have the goals, resources, and personnel to improve reading outcomes system-wide. In the third phase, we mapped the relationships among a sample of programs in the sector in 2016-17, the sources they rely on to support their work, and the NYC schools with whom they partner. Making these relationships visible shows the extent to which students from different backgrounds and schools can get access to information, resources, and expertise, and the extent to which programs are in a position to increase their collective impact through coordination and collaboration. Among the findings: Over 100 programs are working in the K-3 Reading Improvement Sector in NYC The sample programs in the sector focus on a wide range of reading-related goals, but a limited number of programs have demonstrated effectiveness Twenty-six sample programs are connected to 161 different schools comprising 16% of all elementary schools in NYC (including 28% of the elementary schools in the Bronx and 26% of the elementary schools in Manhattan); and the programs are partnering with schools with relatively high levels of need in terms of both performance and poverty Just over half of the sample programs describe themselves as collaborating or partnering with at least one other sample program, but almost half were not in regular contact with any other sample program Sample programs received support from 57 different funders and 75 different sources for literacy expertise with little overlap These results suggest that sector programs have the goals, services, and personnel that could help improve K-3 reading outcomes in New York City; they have the connections to share resources and expertise with a large percentage of elementary schools; and several clusters of connected programs could serve as a powerful force for increased focus and collaboration in reading improvement across the city. However, the collective impact of the sector suffers from the evidence that goals vary considerably. Student and teacher programs differ in terms of their goals and personnel, and only a few programs have had formal outside evaluations completed. In addition, many of the sample programs in the sector are working in isolation from other sample programs and are informed by a wide range of sources of funding and expertise that are themselves likely to be only loosely connected. Although the clusters of collaborating and frequently connected programs could serve as a basis for expansion within the sector, the unconnected programs and the disparate sources of funding and expertise suggest that explicit strategies will need to be developed to support greater coherence in the sector and to increase the effectiveness of the sector overall