ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter we argued that for the teachers in the project schools curriculum development could not be seen as separate from the learning of the individual teacher. Teachers felt individually responsible for the learning and well-being of the children whom they taught and so for the curriculum that they offered. They therefore believed they needed to ‘own’ the curriculum, that is simultaneously to control and to internalize it. They also assumed the right to make choices about curriculum content and all other associated aspects of their practice, subject to certain constraints, such as the need to provide for breadth and balance, and to a lesser extent, for continuity and progression. Finally their deep sense of personal responsibility for the education of ‘their’ children and their belief that it was they who were in charge of it led them to seek ways of improving their own practice. Sometimes this was a matter of acquiring fresh knowledge (for example, in science or technology). At others it was a question of improving specific pedagogical skills (for example, story telling; asking open-ended questions; setting appropriate tasks for children with special learning needs) or mastering new approaches to the teaching of subjects such as reading or spelling. Teachers’ practice also sometimes changed in more fundamental ways. On occasions they were faced with the need to reassess their beliefs about the nature and purposes of education, to accept challenges to the values which shaped their perspectives and practice or to consider how far they wished to fall in line with the views and standards of their heads or colleagues.
