A case study of school-based curriculum development: Taipei County''s Local Culture Initiative

• Main Authors: Pei-Hsuan Lin, 林佩璇
• Other Authors: Kuang-Hsiung Huang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 1999
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/07844938488898327989

博士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 教育研究所 === 88 === A Case Study of School-Based Curriculum Development: Taipei County''s Local Culture Initiative Abstract Like many western countries with centralized education systems have recently adopted policies of encouraging schools to take a greater part in curricular decision-making, in Taiwan, school-based curriculum development (SBCD) has been instituted as a future national curriculum policy and has been expected to be implemented in 2001. The main reasons for the trend towards SBCD stem from disappointment with the curricular renewal through large-scale national projects, recognition that curricula should better reflect the needs of each particular school, and concern about the teacher professional autonomy. However, under a centralized educational structure, curriculum development has not belonged to teachers'' professional activities and teachers have been effectively confined to their classroom merely to implement the nation-wide curriculum with rigorous fidelity in Taiwan. This study aims to investigate several questions: If schools exercise greater control over curriculum development, how do they decide on curriculum strategies to implement? To what extent do teachers actually participate in curriculum decision-making? To understand the particular details of a case and various perspectives about SBCD instead of formulating generalizeable regulations for describing SBCD, this study adopts a naturalistic case study with a long-term engagement in research site in order to interpret the meanings of participants'' situated actions in, and reactions to, SBCD. This study concludes that SBCD cannot be gained very simply by removing or easing the limitations or constraints set up by central authorities. The theoretical assumptions that inform this study --curriculum theory and practice can not be isolated to each other; any curriculum innovation has to take account of teachers'' active participation in decision-making process--allow much discussion among curriculum decision-making process, teachers'' role in curriculum development, and crucial factors influencing SBCD.