The article discusses a study investigating how a group of teachers in Queensland, Australia made sense of the first systemically developed preschool curriculum guidelines. The study was informed by aspects of critical and post-structuralist theory and data examined included transcripts of conversations with teachers and official documents. The study showed that teachers constructed contradictory interpretations of the new curriculum text. They perceived the guidelines as both endorsing existing beliefs and practices and creating new expectations for practice. Teachers' interpretations reflected the competing discourses, agendas and power relations that shaped their views about curriculum and the production of the curriculum guidelines. The study highlighted that the preschool curriculum is negotiated within complex and unstable discourses and power relations. Understanding the complexities that shape curriculum can help educators to monitor reflexively the positive and negative impact of curriculum reform on teachers' practice.
References
1.
AppleM.W. (1989) Teachers and Texts. New York: Routledge.
2.
AppleM.W. (1990) Ideology and Curriculum. New York: Routledge.
3.
AppleM.W. (1996) Cultural Politics and Education. Buckingham: Open University Press.
4.
BallS.J. (1994) Education Reform: A critical and poststructural approach. Buckingham: Open University Press.
5.
BestS. (1994) Foucault, Postmodernism and Social Theory, in DickensD.R. & FontanaA. (Eds) Postmodernism and Social Inquiry. New York: Guilford Press.
CannellaG.S. (1997) Deconstructing Early Childhood Education: Social justice and revolution. New York: Peter Lang.
11.
CannellaG.S. (1999) The Scientific Discourse of Education: Predetermining the lives of others — Foucault, education and children, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 1, pp. 36–44.
12.
CarterB. & BurgessH. (1993) Testing, Regulation and Control: Shifting education narratives, Curriculum Studies, 1, pp. 233–245.
13.
ClandininD.J. & ConnellyF.M. (1994) Personal Experience Methods, in DenzinN.K. & LincolnY.S. (Eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
14.
EbbeckM. & EbbeckF. (1994) Accountability and the Early Childhood Profession, Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 19, pp. 16–20.
15.
FaircloughN. (1989) Language and Power. Harlow: Longman.
16.
FaircloughN. (1992) Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
17.
FeldmanA. (1997) The Role of Conversation in Collaborative Action Research, paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago.
18.
FoucaultM. (1991a) Governmentality, in BurchellG.GordonC. & MillerP. (Eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in governmentality. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
19.
FoucaultM. (1991b) Politics and the Study of Discourse, in BurchellG.GordonC. & MillerP. (Eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in governmentality. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
20.
GiddensA. (1984) The Constitution of Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.
21.
GiddensA. (1987a) Structuralism, Poststructuralism and the Production of Culture, in GiddensA. & TurnerJ.H. (Eds) Social Theory Today. Cambridge: Polity Press.
22.
GiddensA. (1987b) Social Theory and Modern Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
23.
GoodsonI.F. (1994) Studying Curriculum. Buckingham: Open University Press.
24.
GordonC. (1991) Governmental Rationality: An introduction, in BurchellG.GordonC. & MillerP. (Eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in governmentality. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
25.
GubaE.G. & LincolnY.S. (1994) Competing Paradigms in Qualitative Research, in DenzinN.K. & LincolnY.S. (Eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
26.
HalliwellG. (1995) Gaining Acceptance for Child-responsive Practices: What do teachers know about it?Journal of Curriculum Studies, 27, pp. 647–665.
HodderI. (1998) The Interpretation of Documents and Material Culture, in DenzinN.K. & LincolnY. (Eds) Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
29.
JardineD.W. (1992) Reflections on Education, Hermeneutics, and Ambiguity: Hermeneutics as a restoring of life to its original difficulty, in PinarW.F. & ReynoldsW.M. (Eds) Understanding Curriculum as Phenomenological and Deconstructed Text. New York: Teachers College Press.
30.
JohnstonS.E. (1990) Understanding Curriculum Decision-making through Teacher Images, Journal of Curriculum Inquiry, 22, pp. 463–471.
31.
KemmisS. (1995) Emancipatory Aspirations in a Postmodern Era, Curriculum Studies, 3, pp. 133–167.
32.
LovatT.J. & SmithD.L. (1995) Curriculum: Action on reflection revisited. Wentworth Falls: Social Science Press.
33.
LukeA. (1995) Text and Discourse in Education: An introduction to critical discourse analysis, Review of Educational Research in Education, 21, pp. 3–48.
34.
MartusewiczR.A. (1992) Mapping the Terrain of the Post-modern Subject: Post-structuralism and the educated woman, in PinarW.F. & ReynoldsW.M. (Eds) Understanding Curriculum as Phenomenological and Deconstructed Text. New York: Teachers College Press.
35.
MawJ. (1993) The National Curriculum Council and the Whole Curriculum, Reconstruction of a Discourse, Curriculum Studies, 1, pp. 55–75.
36.
McLeanS.V. (1992) Early Childhood Education and Perceptions of ‘Curriculum’, Curriculum Perspectives, 12, pp. 42–46.
37.
OlsonJ. (1989) Surviving Innovation: Reflection on the pitfalls, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 21, pp. 503–508.
38.
OlsonJ. (1992) Understanding Teaching: Beyond expertise. Buckingham: Open University Press.
39.
PerryR. (1992) Experience in Sharing Views about Curriculum, Curriculum Perspectives, 12, pp. 46–50.
40.
PinarW.F.ReynoldsW.M.SlatteryP. & TaubmanP.M. (1995) Understanding Curriculum: An introduction to the study of historical and contemporary curriculum discourses. New York: Peter Lang.
41.
PopkewitzT. S. (1997a) A Changing Terrain of Knowledge and Power: A social epistemology of educational research, Educational Researcher, 26(9) pp. 18–29.
42.
PopkewitzT.S. (1997b) The Production of Reason and Power: Curriculum history and intellectual traditions, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 29, pp. 131–164.
43.
PowellD.R. (1994) Parents, Pluralism, and the NAEYC Statement on Developmentally Appropriate Practice, in MalloryB.L. & NewR.S. (Eds) Diversity and Developmentally Appropriate Practices: Challenges for early childhood education. New York: Teachers College Press.
44.
Queensland School Curriculum Council (1996a) Design Brief: Preschool curriculum guidelines. Brisbane: Queensland School Curriculum Council.
45.
Queensland School Curriculum Council (1996b) Project Profile: Preschool curriculum guidelines project. Brisbane: Queensland School Curriculum Council.
46.
Queensland School Curriculum Council (1997) Preschool Curriculum Guidelines — Trial version. Brisbane: Queensland School Curriculum Council.
47.
Queensland School Curriculum Council (1998a) Curriculum Development for Years 1–10 in Queensland: Some key questions and answers, Interlink, 11 (August).
48.
Queensland School Curriculum Council (1998b) Queensland Years 3 and 5 Testing Program in Aspects of Literacy and Numeracy, Interlink, 8 (February).
49.
RoddJ. (1995) Early Years Provision in Australia in the 1990's: Present status, current issues and future trends. Unknown.
50.
SchwandtT.A. (1994) Constructivist, Interpretivist Approaches to Human Inquiry, in DenzinN.K. & LincolnY.S. (Eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
51.
Senate Employment, Education and Training References Committee (1996) Childhood Matters: The report on the inquiry into early childhood education. Canberra.
52.
SmithD.G. (1991) Hermeneutic Inquiry: The hermeneutic imagination and the pedagogic text, in ShortE.C. (Ed.) Forms of Curriculum Inquiry. Albany: State University of New York Press.
53.
SmithJ.K. (1993) Hermeneutics and Qualitative Inquiry, in FlindersD.J. & MillsG.E. (Eds) Theory and Concepts in Qualitative Research. New York: Teachers College Press.
54.
SugrueC. (1997) Complexities of Teaching: Child-centred perspectives. London: Falmer Press.
55.
TabachnickB.R. & ZeichnerK.M. (1986) Teacher Beliefs and Classroom Behaviours: Some teacher responses to inconsistency, in Ben-PeretzM.BrommeR. & HalkesR. (Eds) Advances of Research on Teacher Thinking. Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger.
56.
TaylorS.RizviF.LingardB. & HenryM. (1997) Educational Policy and Politics of Change. London: Routledge.
57.
TaylorS.J. & BogdanR. (1998) Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods. New York: Wiley.
58.
TinworthS. (1997) Whose Good Idea Was it? Child Initiated Curriculum, Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 22, pp. 24–29.
59.
WiltshireK.McMenimanM. & TolhurstT. (1994) Review of the Queensland School Curriculum 1994: Shaping the future. Brisbane: State Government, Queensland.
60.
YonemuraM. (1982) Teacher Conversations: A potential source of their own professional growth, Curriculum Inquiry, 12, pp. 239–256.
