A National Curriculum for Australian Schools - Perspectives of Teachers and Parents - Research Proposal Example

A National Curriculum for Australian Schools: Perspectives of Teachers and Parents Rationale of the Study This proposed study concerns itself with the perspectives of teachers and parents on the proposed National Curriculum for school children in Australia. There is an ongoing debate in the Australian society on the shape and form of the proposed National Curriculum for school children in Australia. The debate also includes what should be the shape and structure of the authority set up to develop the National Curriculum for schools in Australia. Teachers with their interaction with children and parents as consumers in the education are important to the National Curriculum for schools in Austrlia. The study will explore the perspectives of the teachers and parents in this national debate on a national curriculum to identify themes in these perspectives and attempt to provide meaningful findings that can act as contributions to the development of the National Curriculum for school children in Australia. Aims of the Study The objective of this study is to explore the perspectives of the teachers and parents on the proposed national curriculum for schools in Australia. Teachers have been chosen as a group as they are responsible for the ultimate delivery of the curriculum to school children and their many years of interaction with children endows them with the experience of knowing what would be a meaningful curriculum for school children and the issues that are likely to arise in its delivery. Parents make up the second group of the study and are the real consumers of the school education system. They have their concerns on what needs to be taught to their children and this is the reason for the inclusion of this group of the population The study aims to use a sample population of the teachers and parents in Canberra for the purposes of the study, as Canberra offers a mix of Independent Schools and Public Schools. Furthermore though the Australian Capital Territory in which Canberra is located is the smallest among the States and Territories of Australia, it is the most densely populated area, with the high number of schools and teachers (Australian Capital Territory). The aims of the study are: Identify themes in the relevant literature on the perspectives of the teachers and parents in Australia on the proposed National Curriculum. Determine the views of the teachers in Canberra on the contents of the National Curriculum. Identify the concerns of the parents in Canberra on the contents of the National Curriculum. Practical Importance of these Aims The findings of the study will provide evidence based information on what the teachers and parents believe about the shape and form of the proposed National Curriculum in Australia. This evidence based information can be used to influence the shape and form of the proposed National Curriculum and can also be used to influence the structure of the body being created for the development of the National Curriculum. It is the teachers that deliver the curriculum to the students at the grass root level of the classrooms in schools. This puts them in an ideal position to evaluate the impact of the existing curriculum on the knowledge and skill levels of the school children and the gaps that exist in the content of what is currently being taught in the classrooms. In other words the input from teachers becomes an important factor in the development of an effective National Curriculum to attain the goals of school education in Australia. The parents represent the other end of the scale in that they experience the results of the curriculum on their children. Their input thus provides valid and vital views on what are the enhanced knowledge and skills that are required through the education in schools to make the school children competitive. Background and Literature Review The concept of a uniform National Curriculum covering all the Australian schools functioning in all the States and Territories of the nation goes back in time by nearly four decades. However, previous attempts to put this concept into practice at the federal level filed in spite of several tries at it. The current efforts to develop a National Curriculum can be traced to the Hobart Declaration on Common and Agreed National Goals for Schooling, 1989, which was strengthened by the Tenth Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) meeting at Adelaide, from 22-23 April 1999 and the consequential Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century. This Declaration was the result of the agreement among the Federal, State and Territory Ministers of Education to develop a framework of national collaboration to improve the effectiveness of the schools in Australia (Federalist Paper 2 The Future of Schooling in Australia) The Adelaide Declaration (1999) recognized the importance of the requirement for high quality schooling for good prospects to the future of Australia, as these good prospects depended on the every citizen possessing appropriate knowledge, skills and values to make for a productive and rewarding life in Australian society. The Adelaide Declaration (1999) incorporates broad guidelines on for schools and education administrative authorities to follow, so as to ensure that the desired outcomes and achieved by the school students (The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century - Preamble and Goals). On the subject of curriculum, the guidelines of the Adelaide declaration 1999 requires that the curriculum be comprehensive and balanced and ensures that school children should attain high standards of knowledge, skills and comprehension on the identified key areas of learning of the arts, English, health and physical education, languages other than English, mathematics, science, studies of society and environment and technology. Among the other requirements placed on the curriculum, the guidelines also require that the curriculum should cause the school children to attain skills in the use of numbers and English literacy in such a manner that all students are numerate and able to read, write, spell and communicate at the desired levels (The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century - Preamble and Goals). The current Federal Government under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has set in motion what is termed “educational revolution”, the principal aspect of which is the development of a National Curriculum, which will bring about standardization on what is taught to all the school children in public and private schools in Australia (Manzo, 2009). The definite purpose of the current Federal Government is emphasized by constitution of Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) with the task of developing a National Curriculum in certain specific areas to be taught from the Kindergarten to Year 12 (Introducing ACARA). The National Curriculum for schools in Australia is significant to Australia, as it sets the means for children to be competitive in a global environment, where many nations are not standing still in enhancing the knowledge and skill levels of their children. Australia needs to at least keep or do better with the children. It is this importance of the national Curriculum that has made me select this project. Significance One of the key issues in the development of a National Curriculum for schools in Australia is the constitution and structure of the authority entrusted with the task of developing the National Curriculum. While policy makers and leaders in the education community have a role envisaged, there is less clarity on the role and influence that teachers and parents will carry in the development of the National Curriculum for Schools (Watt, 2008). Teachers, other staff, parents and the community should be integral to the development of the curriculum to be taught in schools, as they are capable of making meaningful contributions to any educational program. Taking the example of teachers, they play a mentorship role with children. Teachers spend a lot of time in their teaching and other activities with small groups of children and are engaged meaningfully for the teachers to understand the educational needs and capabilities of the children. In the development of the National Curriculum it is necessary that it be constructed in a manner that makes sure that the children are provided a respectful environment and their natural dispositions for learning. Teachers through their meaningful interaction and understanding of these aspects of children are in a position to make meaningful contributions in the development of the National Curriculum (Press, 2008). Teachers are instrumental in justifying the curriculum to the students, by informing and convincing them that the knowledge and skills being imparted through the curriculum are essential to their success in their planned careers. Unless teachers see the justification in the curriculum, by being part of its development it may be their justification of the curriculum will be less efficient (Vickers, 2007). The Teachers Union are already up in arms calling for flexibility and protection against test-driven instruction. They also demand that teachers should be engaged in a thorough manner in the National Curriculum exercise to ensure that proper resources and proper support for teachers through the National Curriculum exercise to achieve the targeted outcomes for students (Manzo, 2009). Criticism of the National Curriculum developed for England and Wales echoes this same lack of flexibility and involvement of the teachers in the development of the National Curriculum. Freedom and control of the curriculum were features enjoyed by the teachers prior to the new national curriculum. This freedom was lost to the central educational body and the teachers were left with freedom and discretion only in the area of methodology in delivery. In other words the teachers found that their role was reduced to delivering the curriculum, the nature and content of which they had no role to play. This had two impacts on the teachers. It restricted the teachers’ ability to modulate the nature and content of subjects based on the individual abilities of students and had a more damaging impact of the teachers losing job satisfaction through their reduced professional scope (Kelly, 1994). Parents are the clients and consumers in the education sector, making them important stake holders. Their role is further in the development of a national curriculum is further reinforced from the contributions that they can make to a more efficient curriculum in meeting the goals of the national curriculum (Gregory, 2002). According to Gregory (2002), p.94, “parents are here to stay as a voice to be heeded in the education of their children”. The voice of the community in the imparting of education to children is achieved through the presence of parents in the school governing bodied. Based on pressure from the community for a louder say on educational issues, their voice in the governing of schools is increasing through enhanced presence of parents in the governing bodies. Parents thus play an important role in the governing of schools and through that the form and content of the education imparted in schools. Parents thus exert an influence on the curriculum at the school level and become an essential voice in the development of a National Curriculum (Driscoll, 1999). By exploring and providing answers to the themes of concern of the teachers and parents, this study provides inputs for the authority (ACARA) entrusted with the task of developing the National Curriculum for school children to take into consideration these concerns in the development of the national Curriculum and avoid criticism and failure to provide a National Curriculum that will attain the objectives of student outcomes. In addition, it also provides information that will assist in the constitution of the authority giving due representation to parents and teachers. Methodology This study will use an inductive and deductive framework to find answers to the questions that the study explores. The reason for the combination of inductive and deductive frameworks lies in making use of the advantages of both. Many of the problems that research explores are done more effectively through the combination of inductive and deductive methods. The inductive method is better suited for the use and interpretation of qualitative data, while the deductive method has more emphasis on measurement and therefore is better suited for use in gathering quantitative data and the interpretation of quantitative data (Lancaster, 2005). According to Lancaster (2005), p.26, “we may begin a research project using inductive methods and approaches, by say, first observing and measuring a phenomenon or problem that we wish to explore. This in turn can lead us to develop theories that we can then test using deductive methods and approach”. This study follows this advice in making use of the literature review to explore the perspectives of teachers and parents in the national debate on the development of the national Curriculum in Australia. The study will use a literature review as part of the inductive approach to understand the current status in the concerns of the teachers and parents in the development of the new National Curriculum for schools in Australia. Nunes and Al-Mamari (2008), p.67, argue in favour of such an approach in the use of the inductive method to formulate early theories and problems in research. According to Nunes and Al-Mamari (2008), p.67, “the literature review process should therefore produce a priori theory that reflects the cumulative knowledge in the field on the phenomenon being studied, i.e., generic a priori categories that are strongly expected to be relevant in the discussion, explanation and understanding of that phenomenon”. Such an approach however does not imply that the subsequent findings need to be in keeping with these initial theories that arise from the literature review, for they only constitute the initial framework, which the subsequent part of the study may uphold or be denied, based on the results obtained from the deductive process (Nunes & Al-Mamari, 2008). From Lancaster (2005), we get to understand the benefit of an inductive method in the exploring of a topic or issue through the use of qualitative data. The literature review thus will provide qualitative data that in effect provides the cumulative knowledge on the topic of concerns and perspectives of teachers and parents on the issue of the National Curriculum for schools in Australia. Analysis of this data or the cumulative knowledge will provide the means to identify the common themes in the concerns and perspectives of teachers and parents independently and also whether there are any concerns and perspectives that are common to both the teachers and parents. This is the justification of the use of the understanding generated from the literature review, as the basis for the subsequent deductive approach for the study purposes. However, Nunes and Al-Mamari (2008), warn that the results of the subsequent deductive process may not uphold all that is derived from the literature review in the inductive process. The deductive or quantitative methods employed in the study thus are capable of verifying the common themes identified in the literature review and it is for this purpose that the deductive process is used as a second part in the methodology. The quantitative research approach has been used by the study, as it provides the means to provide verified answers to the questions related to the study. In addition, it allows drawing conclusions on a group of individuals being studied and then even extending the results of the studies beyond this group. The main attraction lies in the advantage that a quantitative approach provides in limiting the size of the sample in providing answers to the research question. This results in the benefits of reducing the time and cost on the study. This is particularly useful, when the sample population is large and located at great distance from the study team (Holton & Burnett, 2005). Research Methods and Techniques In the first place information has to be gathered on what are the issues and concerns that are on the minds of the parents and teachers with regard to the proposed National Curriculum for schools in Australia. This information will be gathered by conducting a literature review. Articles from books and journals providing relevant information for the purposes of the study, from 1999 onwards will be used in the literature review. The Internet will be used to access government and the ACARA web sites for data related to the National Curriculum for schools and also as an additional means to access databases and articles and books that provide relevant articles or information on the topic being explored. The inclusion criteria for the articles and data will be relevant articles and data published on or after 1999. The exclusion criteria will be any articles and data published before 1999. Themes of issues and concerns on the development of a National Curriculum for schools in Australia of teachers and parents will be identified separately and collated. This set of collated information will form the basis of two sets of questionnaires. The first questionnaire is meant for teachers and will be created on the basis of the themes identified as teachers’ issues and concerns from the literature review. In a similar manner the second questionnaire will be created on the basis of the themes identified as parents’ issues and concerns from the literature review. The first questionnaire will be applied on a random basis to ten teachers each from the ten selected schools in Canberra. Using a similar technique of random sampling, the second questionnaire will be applied to twenty parents each from the ten selected schools in Canberra. The capital city of Canberra with its Independent Schools and the Government Schools in Canberra will be the setting of the study. There are seven Independent Schools and 72 Government Schools in the city of Canberra. The city of Canberra has been chosen because it offers an adequate mix of Independent Schools and Government Schools. Analysis The qualitative data for the study will be collected through a literature review. The themes of concerns and perspectives of the teachers and parents in each of the literature reviewed will be identified separately by scrutiny and made into a tabular form. The themes thus identified will form the findings of the literature review and the basis of the questionnaires prepared for application to the parents and teachers. Two sets of questionnaires will be prepared. The first questionnaire is for application for on teachers and the second questionnaire is for application on parents. The questionnaire to the teachers will query them on their views on what should be a part of the National Curriculum, their concerns on how it will be implemented and their suggestion on efficient implementation of the National Curriculum. The second questionnaire to the parents will contain questions that evaluate the concerns of the parents on the content of the National Curriculum and their issues with both the school administration and the teaching fraternity in the implementation of the National Curriculm. The data collected in the questionnaires will form the qualitative data of the study. The data will be divided into two. The data from the first questionnaire will form the first set of qualitative data and the data from the second set of questionnaires will form the second set of qualitative data. Statistical analysis employing SPSS will be done to evaluate the agreement of the teachers and parents with the themes of issues and concerns that emerged from the literature review. Correlation will also be done to evaluate whether there are common areas of issues and concerns among the teachers and parents. These results will be employed to come to the findings of the study. Discussion According to Gregory 2003, p.20, “research (serious enquiry) aims at truth”. As humans there is a tendency to get unduly attached to people or causes, which can dilute the truth element in research. Though the search for truth, knowledge and understanding of human activity is not easy to satisfy and a demanding task, it is important in research that there is a strong attachment to the finding of truth, getting better information and understanding and a preference for knowledge, instead of attempting to find half-truths and comfortable information and understanding of a subject (Gregory, 2003). This study attempts to follow this ethic of finding true information and understanding to provide a better knowledge on the topic of study. In the opinion of Gregory (2003) p.27 “human beings, their interests and concerns lie at the very heart of the world of the researcher”. Since human volunteers are going to be exposed to the activities of the research in the attempts of the researcher to enhance understanding of the subject, the researcher is morally bound to see that no harm is caused to the human volunteers during the process of the research and in the information gathered from the human volunteer (Gregory, 2003). To keep in line with these ethical requirements, the study will follow the steps outlined below. 1. Administrative sanction from the institution will be received before starting the study and applying the carefully prepared questionnaire respectively to the teachers and parents. 2. All participating schools and participating teachers and schools will be purely on voluntary basis. They will be informed of the nature of the study and their participation requested. Only those conveying their willingness to be a part of the study will be accepted as volunteers. 3. Professional ethics as a researcher will be maintained at all times during the study. 4. Data collected will be for academic purposes only. 5. Data will be collected in such a manner as to ensure confidentiality of the business organizations (Data sheets (Questionnaires will be coded for anonymity). 6. At the end of the study the data sheets will be handed over to the administrative authorities for safe keeping. Timeline The study is proposed to be completed over a period of eleven months extending from January 2010 to November 2010. The various activities related to the study have been identified and time frames allotted to each of the identified activities. A detailed breakdown of the activities and allotted time frames are given below. Issue researched Literature review Familiarization of research setting January 2010 Study design Preparation of Questionnaire Arranging Statistical Analysis Requirements February 2010 Trial Data collection and Participant Contracts Completed March 2010 Proposal Completed April 2010 Application of Questionnaires May/June 2010 Data Analysis July 2010 Draft Report August 2010 Feedback to Participants September 2010 Revise Analysis and Report October 2010 Final Report November 2011 (Word Count 3705) Literary References Australian Capital Territory. (2008). Retrieved September 19, 2009, from, Australian Bureau of Statistics Web Site: http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/c311215.nsf/20564c23f3183fdaca25672100813ef1/d13eac963fc136adca256ca300049949!OpenDocument Driscoll, P. (1999). Key issues in the debate about the inclusion of MFL in the primary curriculum. In Patricia Driscoll (Ed.), The Teaching of Modern Foreign Languages in the Primary School (pp.10-13). London: Routledge. Federalist Paper 2 The Future of Schooling in Australia. 2007. A Report By The States and Territories. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from Web Site: http://education.qld.gov.au/publication/production/reports/pdfs/2007/federalist-paper.pdf Gregory, I. (2002). Policies, Practice and Principles. In Ian Davies, Ian Gregory & Nick McGuinn (Eds.), Key Debates in Education (pp.84-100). London: Continuum International Publishing. Gregory, I. (2003). ETHICS IN RESEARCH. London: Continuum International Publishing. Holton, E. F. & Burnett, M. F. (2005). The Basics of Quantitative Research. In Richard A. Swanson & Elwood F Holton (Eds.), Research in Organizations: Foundations and Methods of Enquiry, California: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Introducing ACARA. 2009. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority Web Site: http://www.acara.edu.au/default.asp Kelly, A. V. (1994). The National Curriculum: A Critical Review. London: Paul Chapman Publishing Limited. Lancaster, G. (2005). Research Methods in Management: A Concise Introduction to Research in Management and Business Consultancy. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. Manzo, K. K. (2009). National Curriculum Inching Forward. Education Week, 28(29), 22-24. Nunes, M. B. & Al-Mamari, S. H. (2008). Inductive Approaches Using a Priori Coding in Information Systems Research: A Discussion. In Ann Brown (Ed.), Seventh European Conference on Research Methodology for Business and Management Studies, Regent’s College, London, UK, 19-20 June 2008, Reading: Academic Publishing Limited. Press, F. (2008). Solving the policy puzzle. Bedrock, 13(1), 4-5. The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century - Preamble and Goals. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from Web Site: http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/school_education/policy_initiatives_reviews/national_goals_for_schooling_in_the_twenty_first_century.htm Vickers, M. (2007). Curriculum. In R. Connell, C. Campbell, M. Vickers, A. Welch, D. Foley & N. Bagnall (Eds.). Education, change and society (pp.239-261). Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Watt, M. G. (2008). National curriculum collaboration in Australia: an analysis of the national debate. Paper presented at the Professional Conference of the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association (Auckland, New Zealand, Apr 17-19, 2008) Read More