School-based curriculum development: is it coming back into fashion?

Abstract The current New Zealand Curriculum/Tc Marautanga o Aotearoa Project involves a wide-ranging process to engage teachers, principals, students, lecturers, and others in revitalising the New Zealand curriculum. In 2004, as one of many facets to this project, the Ministry of Education commissioned a background paper to explore principles and practices associated with the concept of curriculum development. This article discusses the different ways school-based curriculum (SBCD) has been conceived, and considers the current relevance and implications of SBCD for New Zealand schools today. I argue that a rekindling of SBCD could stimulate schools, policy makers, and communities to reflect on three of the most fundamental questions about curriculum: What should students learn at school'? Why? And who decides? Introduction Like clothing fashions, ideas in the education world sometimes fall out of style, only to return again decades later as a revival. (1) For example, right now 1980s-inspired fashions have regained some popularity. Next time you are out on the street, you may notice young people wearing colours and styles that you purged from your closet 20 years ago. But before you dig out and start wearing your gear, take a closer look at what they are wearing and you'll probably notice some subtle differences from the clothing you knew. That pink cardigan in the shop looks just like the one you had in 1981, but it's made from a different kind of knit, and you wouldn't have worn it with hipsters. Perhaps you used to have a shirt in the same shade of aquamarine as the one that guy is wearing. But yours didn't have that inbuilt cellphone pocket. Fashions do come back, but they always come back with modifications to suit the contemporary fashion landscape. In the same way, old educational ideas that return in a new educational climate are never precisely the same as they were the first time around. Like fashion designers who draw inspiration from previous decades and add their own contemporary twist, educators must take good educational ideas from the past and reinterpret these to fit the contemporary educational landscape. In this article, I discuss the resurgence of the notion of curriculum development (SBCD) in New Zealand. SBCD was a widely described notion in 1970s and 1980s educational literature. However, in New Zealand and many other countries, the term dropped out of use in the literature (luring the late 1980s and early 1990s. The current New Zealand Curriculum/Marautanga Project (2) has sparked renewed interest in SBCD. In 2004, as one of many facets to this project, the Ministry of Education commissioned a background paper to explore principles and practices associated with the concept of curriculum development (Bolstad, 2004). This article draws from that work to consider the relevance and implications of SBCD for New Zealand schools today. What exactly is school-based curriculum development? The first part of the article discusses some of the different meanings associated with SBCD, and how it can he viewed in relation to other forms of curriculum (for example, centralised curriculum development). Does SBCD mean schools designing their own curriculum from the bottom up, or does it encompass a wider set of curriculum decision-making practices that occur within schools? The second part of the article discusses how, over time, views of SBCD have gradually shifted from the former to the latter definition. These shifts have been framed by periodic movements between centralisation and decentralisation of curriculum and school decision making. What does this mean for New Zealand schools today'? The third part of the article outlines some of the challenges and opportunities that SBCD offers New Zealand schools, and considers how it could he fostered to the benefit of schools, students, and communities. …