A critical realist exploratory study into the dominant approaches of curriculum developers at research-intensive universities in Canada
Notice bibliographique
Résumé
Expectations around teaching, learning, and curriculum, have shifted alongside the massification of higher education, creating the need for specialized roles, such as curriculum developers, to effectively address those expectations. This research investigates the expanding yet understudied role of curriculum development as a specialized function within Canadian research-intensive universities. Although curriculum developers now play a prominent part in shaping academic programs, little is known about the nature of their work. Using a critical realist lens, this qualitative study explores why certain approaches dominate curriculum developers’ practice. Margaret Archer’s analytical dualism enables an examination of the relationship between curriculum developers and the structural and cultural conditions shaping their roles, while Basil Bernstein’s sociology of education provides tools to analyze the types of knowledge developers draw upon and how this knowledge is recontextualized in practice. Sixteen curriculum developers who work in the teaching and learning centres at research-intensive universities in Canada were interviewed for this study. The findings indicate that the rationale behind curriculum developers’ approach to their work is linked to ‘market relevance’ based on their professional role rather than theoretical knowledge from academic disciplines, placing the field within Bernstein’s conceptualization of the generic mode. The recontextualizing principle governing how curriculum developers select knowledge in their work with departments is based on the notion of ‘quality’, tied to developers’ morally grounded commitment to student learning. The notion of quality manifests both as a structural emergent property through quality assurance and governance policies in universities and as a cultural emergent property through dominant discourses related to the concept of alignment in higher education broadly. The findings indicate that curriculum developers are socialized into their roles and are influenced by these dominant discourses through interactions with peers and colleagues, as well as through other avenues such as scholarly work and conferences. This study highlights both theoretical and practical implications for the field of curriculum development, arguing that practitioners need greater awareness of the conceptual foundations and contextual conditions shaping their work to strengthen their agency and decision-making.
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Comment cette classification a été obtenuedéplier
Prédiction distillée sur la base complète
Imitation des enseignantsNi prévalence calibrée, ni vérité terrain. Validation humaine à venir. Apprise à partir de 10 348 étiquettes directes de Codex et de 10 348 étiquettes directes de Gemma. Le mode candidate est l'union des têtes enseignantes seuillées; le consensus est leur intersection. Ces sorties portent le statut machine_predicted_unvalidated et ne sont ni des étiquettes humaines ni des étiquettes directes de modèles de pointe.
Scores Codex et Gemma par catégorie
| Catégorie | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Métarecherche | 0,003 | 0,003 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens strict) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens large) | 0,001 | 0,000 |
| Bibliométrie | 0,000 | 0,002 |
| Études des sciences et des technologies | 0,003 | 0,002 |
| Communication savante | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Science ouverte | 0,001 | 0,000 |
| Intégrité de la recherche | 0,000 | 0,001 |
| Charge utile insuffisante (le modèle a refusé de juger) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
Scores machine (provisoires)
Les deux têtes enseignantes du modèle étudiant, lues sur ce travail. Un score ordonne la base pour la relecture; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie, et le statut de validation accompagne chaque rangée tel quel.
Scores de référence d'un modèle non mature (critères de maturité non atteints, 7 itérations). Un score ordonne; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · tel quel depuis la passe de notation : score_only signifie que le nombre peut ordonner les travaux, et qu'aucune étiquette de catégorie n'en découleClassification
machine, non validéePrédiction automatique; un appel candidat d’une seule tête enseignante, pas un consensus.
Le détail, modèle par modèle et score par score, se trouve en fin de page sous « Comment cette classification a été obtenue ».