Optimising Sustainable Curricular Capacity Development In Low And Middle Income Countries: Towards A Conceptual Framework

Author(s):

Corine Vis(presenting / submitting)Nienke M. Nieveen Jan Berkvens

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

03. Curriculum Innovation

Format:

Research Workshop

Session Information

03 SES 05, Curricular Capacity Building

Research Workshop

Time:

2014-09-03

11:00-12:30

Room:

B110 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Corine Vis

Contribution

Many curriculum development efforts, where international organisations work together with stakeholders in lower and middle-income countries, lack sustainable outcomes. Knowledge regarding curriculum revision or improvement, including design, development, implementation and evaluation of curriculum development trajectories is needed to arrive at more systemic and sustainable outcomes. Therefore, in addition to curriculum knowledge, knowledge regarding professional development of (future) teachers, education managers, etc., and inclusion of parents and other relevant stakeholders is indispensible. This knowledge is often lacking or weak, which may lead to disappointing results and weak reforms. A more solid curricular capacity development knowledge base could help in shaping international initiatives supporting curriculum development. The Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO and The Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development (SLO) initiated research into enhancing the sustainability of curriculum development efforts in developing countries, in order to make a contribution to the education knowledge base and to more successful interventions in this area. The research specifically focuses on curricular capacity development in developing countries and aims to answer the question how curriculum development processes can be optimised in order to develop the curricular capacity of stakeholders and strengthen sustainable curriculum reforms. In order to answer this question, two major challenges will be addressed:

What curricular capacity development approaches are effective in strengthening curriculum expertise and professional capacity of stakeholders, and what are their characteristics?
How could international joint curriculum development efforts lead to more sustainable curricular capacity development?

The research consists of three stages: 1: mapping and articulating the existing academic and professional knowledge base regarding educational capacity development efforts in such contexts, 2: relating the knowledge base to curricular reforms and capacity development practice in selected countries and 3: thinking about the implications for sustainable international cooperation in relation to curricular capacity development.

The outcomes of the literature and context analysis (stage one) were presented at last year’s ECER conference in Istanbul. The findings led to a framework, consisting of 5 pillars of capacity development and related design principles. The research has now entered the stage of formative evaluation through expert appraisal. During this research workshop curriculum experts (scholars and peers) are invited to evaluate this conceptual framework for curricular guidance. The main question is how experts think the framework would work in curricular capacity development trajectories. The five identified pillars and the subsequent design principles for sustainable curricular capacity development are discussed as well. Based on the outcomes of this research workshop the framework will be improved and tested in the field for further validation.

Presenting and submitting the first part of stage two of this research contributes to one of the main objectives: articulation of sustainable curricular capacity development principles, which could contribute to the knowledge base through academic publications and presentations.

Method

For this research an educational design research (EDR) approach is adopted. This research informed approach combines three related goals: optimisation of curricular interventions and products; development of curriculum design principles and strengthening the existing knowledge base; and professional development of all stakeholders involved (Van den Akker, 2010). EDR could be characterised as an interactive approach with integrated research activities that feed the process both forward and back. A thorough context and curriculum analysis at the beginning of the trajectory, built-in research, frequent formative evaluation and the inclusion of relevant stakeholders contributes significantly to the three aforementioned goals of EDR. The primary research of the first stage consisted of a literature and context analysis. The literature analysis focused on capacity development in international development cooperation and involved a broad number of documents issued by influential and leading international initiatives, institutions and organisations that determine international paradigms, including the Millennium Development Goals, UNESCO-CapEFA, UNESCO-IIEP, UNICEF, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, SIDA, OECD, UNDP, ODI, EPMCD and the outcomes of High Level Forums on Aid Effectiveness. For the context analysis, the focus shifted to educational capacity development. A number of interviews were conducted with five change supporting agencies, and three recent case studies of curricular capacity development were analysed: the Basic Education Improvement Project in Suriname 2010-2012 (long-term), a curriculum development course in Uganda 2012 (short-term) and the Nuffic Curriculum and Assessment course 2012 (short-term). All case studies contained an underlying research strand and have been evaluated at several points in time. The analytical framework for this research consists of Guskey’s (2000) five levels of professional development, the quality criteria for curriculum (relevance, consistency, practicality, effectiveness, sustainability and scalability) by Nieveen et al. (1999, 2009), possibilities for scalability (Coburn, 2003) and the model for teaching and learning arrangements by Smits (2009).

Expected Outcomes

The outcomes of stage one resulted in the formulation of a vast number of design principles for curricular capacity development, which are linked to five drafted pillars for sustainable capacity development (CD): 1. Ownership & harmonisation: CD can only work in a sustainable way when there is a certain readiness for change; coupled with national leadership and ownership; alignment between national priorities, strategies, international efforts; and a shared vision. 2. Levels of capacity: CD-strategies need to pay attention to multiple capacity levels: the individual and the organisational levels, institutions that rule public management as a whole, and the social, political and economic contexts. 3. Partnership through dialogue: there is a need for genuine partnerships based on trust, collegial dialogue, mutual accountability and open-mindedness. 4. Collaborative learning: it is essential to adopt participatory, learning-oriented approaches and evaluation models focusing on endogenous accountability. 5. Strategic thinking & action: CD-interventions benefit strongly from strategic thinking and action that strengthens the other pillars. The design principles are grouped along the pillars of capacity development and, when applied as much as possible in conjunction with each other, will assumingly work towards optimisation of sustainable curricular capacity development efforts. In order to make the extensive list of principles more manageable and practical, they are incorporated into a conceptual framework for curricular guidance. This framework guides stakeholders through the process in a systemic and systematic but non-prescriptive way, along the core activities of curriculum development and will be used during the case studies. Further expected outcomes of the research are: 1. For professionals and governments: a practical guiding framework for sustainable curricular capacity development and recommendations for implementation of curricular capacity development principles 2. For academics: articulation of sustainable curricular capacity development principles (contribution to the knowledge base through academic publications and presentations).

References

Akker, J. van den (2010). Building Bridges: how research may improve curriculum policies and classroom practices. Beyond Lisbon 2010: perspectives from research and development for education policy in Europe. Berkshire: The National Foundation for Educational Research. Coburn, C.E. (2003). Rethinking Scale: Moving Beyond Numbers to Deep and Lasting Change. Educational Researcher, Vol. 32, No. 6, pp. 3–12. Sage Publications Guskey, T.R. (2000). Evaluating professional development. California: Corwin Press. Nieveen, N.M. (1999). Prototyping to reach product quality. In J. van den Akker, R. Branch, K. Gustavson, N. Nieveen, & Tj. Plomp (Eds.) Design approaches and tools in education and training (pp. 125-136). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Nieveen, N.M. (2009). Formative evaluation in educational design research. In Tj. Plomp & N. Nieveen (Eds.), An introduction to educational design research (pp. 89-101). Enschede: SLO.

Author Information

Corine Vis (presenting / submitting)

Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development

Research and Consultancy

Enschede

Nienke M. Nieveen

SLO Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development

Research and Consultancy

Enschede

Jan Berkvens

The Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development (SLO)

research and consultancy

Amsterdam

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