LEADERS' VOICES ON CURRICULUM AND CURRICULAR FLEXIBILITY
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abstract
The responsibilities of teachers as curriculum managers are today a challenge given the curricular
flexibility. These challenges stem from the discourse of autonomy and the capacity for collaborative
deliberation of teachers, which refers to decisions at the level of educational policy, which can be operated
in the transformation of schools oriented to the success and meaningful learning of students. This article
aims to present a part of a more comprehensive project entitled "Beliefs, knowledge, and practices of
teachers". It analyzes the voice of the leaders of eleven groups of schools of the Intermunicipal Community
of Lands of Trás-os-Montes (CIM-TTM), Portugal. The study follows a qualitative methodology, using
group interviews with school principals, department coordinators, and class directors as a data collection
technique. From the content analysis on the school, category emerged the following subcategories:
meanings of curriculum and curriculum management. The data reveal that participants associate the
concept of the curriculum with knowledge, disciplinary content, experience, learning, and school. The
influence of the hidden curriculum in the teaching and learning process was perceived, and its political
connotation and utopian sense. Regarding the management of the curriculum, the teacher emerged in the
participant's conceptions as an executor, a builder, and a decision-maker. The curriculum was specifically
recognized as guidance and control over compliance with the program. In the context of curricular flexibility,
the: (i) the adequacy to specific contexts was emphasized; (ii) the integration of the regional or local
component of the curriculum; (iii) hope for curricular flexibility: recognition of potentialities and limitations;
and (iv) the discrepancy between design and implementation. In conclusion, it points to the need to
respond to the current and future challenges of the school, and to value the curriculum for the creation of
opportunities favourable to the success of students
This work has been supported by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope:
UIDB/05777/2020.
