A1 Journal article (refereed)
Building coherence and impact : differences in Finnish school level curriculum making (2022)

Soini, T., Pyhältö, K., Haverinen, K., Sullanmaa, J., Leskinen, E., & Pietarinen, J. (2022). Building coherence and impact : differences in Finnish school level curriculum making. Curriculum Perspectives, 42(2), 121-133. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41297-022-00165-9

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Soini, Tiina; Pyhältö, Kirsi; Haverinen, Kaisa; Sullanmaa, Jenni; Leskinen, Esko; Pietarinen, Janne

Journal or series: Curriculum Perspectives

ISSN: 0159-7868

eISSN: 2367-1793

Publication year: 2022

Publication date: 01/07/2022

Volume: 42

Issue number: 2

Pages range: 121-133

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Publication country: Australia

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41297-022-00165-9

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Partially open access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/82310

Abstract

The study aims to gain a better understanding on how curriculum making regulated by reform’s implementation strategy contributes to teachers’ and teacher communities perceived curriculum coherence, and further to the impact that reform has on school development. The two-level path modelling was utilised for analysing clustered data including the 75 schools and 1556 individual teachers from these schools during the most recent Finnish core curriculum reform. The results showed that the participatory strategy, including balancing the steering and transformative dialogue, seemed to be crucial both for promoting the individual teacher’s and professional communities’ shared capacity to process the big ideas of the new core curriculum document at the school level. Moreover, it promoted perceived curriculum coherence and further impact on school development. Participatory curriculum making strategy, balancing the steering and transformative dialogue in the curriculum making, seemed to be crucial both for supporting the individual teacher’s and professional communities’ in processing the ideas of the new core curriculum. Change management and knowledge sharing promoted perceived curriculum coherence and further reform’s perceived impact on school development for both individual teacher and teacher communities.

Keywords: school reform; curricula; participatory design; schools (educational institutions); teachers; competence development; transfer of expertise

Free keywords: curriculum making; change management; knowledge sharing; curriculum coherence

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2022

Preliminary JUFO rating: 1