The dilemmas inherent in curriculum design: Unpacking the lived experiences of Australian teacher educators

Abstract

Teacher educators often find themselves squeezed between enacting a continually shifting teacher education reform policy, increasing standardisation and more strident accountability measures on the one hand. Balanced with best trying to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population, different community settings and a profession that is well prepared for current and future challenges. In this paper, three teacher educators use narrative inquiry to interrogate these dilemmas and the way they play out in teacher education curriculum design work. The stories told are analysed and three themes of contexts, currency and connection are identified. A number of pro-active strategies to help teacher educators take an agentive stance to curriculum planning emerge. The analysis helped reveal a variety of ways teacher educators can use their knowledge of place, policy and working in partnerships to navigate through a highly regulated space.