Curriculum decision making in a research university: an interplay between ideologies and influences

Abstract

This empirical study addresses the need to better understand how academics design undergraduate curricula and the influences that shape their decisions. The study draws on literatures from the perspectives of curriculum and the teaching-research nexus to identify a framework for investigating curriculum decisions that comprises all potential influences in the higher education context, including research. Interviews were held with 20 academics from a range of disciplines who were working at a research university and were both research active and committed to teaching. These participants were selected to represent a group who experienced the dynamics between research and teaching in their curriculum practice. The process of higher education curriculum decision making was found to be an iterative web, with multiple starting points and pathways. The common starting points, in order of frequency, were course content, learning outcomes, and teaching and learning activities. The findings suggest that there is no one best pathway for curriculum design, because the iterative process means that decisions are progressively revisited and refined. Beginning from learning outcomes is helpful for providing a framework for thinking about other curriculum decisions; however a focus on teaching and learning experiences leads to more innovative curriculum approaches. There is widespread awareness that students need to be engaged, and that active learning approaches enhance student learning. Good practices that were less common were using marking criteria to guide students in assessment tasks, and evaluating learning effectiveness. Participants’ beliefs about educational purposes were found to the most important influence shaping their curriculum decisions. Five curriculum orientations were identified that aligned with the following beliefs about educational purposes: (1) inducting students into a discipline, (2) preparing students’ for professional and academic pathways, (3) making learning personally relevant to students, (4) engaging students with social issues and reform, and (5) designing a system for learning. The explicit inclusion of research in this study enabled the identification of the ‘professional and academic curriculum orientation’, which is distinctive from other curriculum studies. In this orientation, research provided a bridge between professional and academic educational purposes for preparing students for professional practice, for future research and for academic learning. Patterns of beliefs suggest that curriculum orientations are informed by participants’ disciplinary knowledge practices, however they also express agency informed by educational ideologies. Engagement with educational professional development was found to develop pedagogical expertise that could lead to transformative curriculum change. Most participants did not explicitly identify influences from the socio-political context as having an impact on their curricula decisions. However they demonstrated that they were responding to changing expectations for including employability skills in curricula, and about teaching and learning. Participants’ curriculum orientations were found to shape their responses to change. This study suggests implications for educational change initiatives and for educational professional development. Academics were found to be responsive to changing their curriculum and teaching practices when they perceive the change to enhance the achievement of their educational purposes, to be aligned with their disciplinary knowledge practices, and to provide benefits that include institutional recognition and reward. Show more