03. Curriculum Innovation
Paper
Literature Teaching in Portugal Before and After Democratic Revolution: Analysis of Curricula
Andressa Jove Godoy, Amélia Lopes
University of Porto, Portugal
Presenting Author: Jove Godoy, Andressa
The history of literature teaching and Portuguese teaching overlaps in Portugal due to the adoption of literary texts as resources in mother tongue classes since the emergence of the modern school in the 18th century. Portuguese became a teaching subject due to Pombaline legislation, which consolidated efforts to create and strengthen the idea of a nation-state. At this time, "Os Lusíadas" by Luís de Camões and other literary texts began to be used in classes of grammar and rhetoric of the mother tongue as models of good language and examples of national imagery, values and national pride.
Despite notable changes, the language and literature curricula approved through the following decades continued to reflect this nationalistic perspective, intensified during the non-democratic 'New State' years (1933 - 1974) (Magalhães, 2019). After the fall of the dictatorial regime and the democratic restoration in 1974, progressive theoretical currents (e.g. Critical Pedagogy, Sociolinguistics, Textual Linguistics, and Reception Theories) influenced isolated experiments to update the Portuguese and literature teaching. However, these new perspectives were subjected to the previous ones, already standardised (Duarte, 2013).
In attention to this retrospect, we would like to know how literature teaching has evolved, what place it has occupied and what functions it has played in Portuguese education during the last five decades of democracy. Considering that the variations in status and roles attributed to literary texts in school result from the combination of local sociopolitical tensions and global didactic-methodological trends (Cosson, 2020) and the leading role in regulating education always assumed by the State in Portugal (Duarte, 2013), we believe the analysis of official discourses about literature teaching, materialised in curricula and programs, could answer our questions.
Thus, in this paper, we aim to identify and analyse possible changes and continuities in the curricula that have guided literature teaching since 1974 in Portugal. To do this, we conducted a documentary analysis (Cohen et al., 2018) of official texts that approach literature teaching.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe documentary analysis method provides the opportunity for social contextualisation of the phenomenon studied, enabling the interpretation of the situation in which it developed (Cohen et al., 2018), which corroborates the study of 'institutional discourses' (Duarte, 2013) about teaching literature in Portugal. To do this, we searched government databases and repositories (e.g. Catálogo da Diretoria Geral de Educação, Diário da República Eletrônico, and Sistema Nacional de Bibliotecas of Portugal) for primary documents such as curricula and programs that have guided and regulated the teaching of literature at secondary education in Portugal from 1974 to the present. Then, we analysed and interpreted the corpus using techniques motivated by the thematic content analysis method (Braun & Clarke, 2012), focusing on aspects that characterised the place and function of literature teaching portrayed in each document, such as goals, content and oeuvre selection.
By doing that, we identify possible theoretical currents and methodological trends that have influenced the development of literature as a curricular area through these decades. Besides, we recognise aspects that have remained and changed in teaching literature over the last few decades.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findingshe analysis of the documents that have guided literature teaching in Portugal during the last five democratic decades demonstrated that, despite the significant changes in the statutes that the literary text has been assuming in Portuguese schools, there was never a complete theoretical-methodological rupture process. As a result, the teaching model that aims to guarantee the construction of national identity has persisted since the Portuguese classes in the 18th century. Even with the paradigmatic innovations proposed after the Democratic Revolution, language and literature teaching continued to be defined by dominant political and social demands, which, regardless of the theoretical concepts adopted, have mostly tended to the nationalist and patriotic tradition. An example is the maintenance of a school canon whose core demonstrates the attachment that the literature teaching in Portugal has to its traditional bases.
The paradigmatic miscellany that currently configures the literature teaching in the Portuguese basic education system (Duarte, 2013) results from a historical accumulation of dissonant guiding concepts. The avoidance of a revolution in the literature curricula has generated difficulties in creating a literary education process that responds to the needs and desires of students during these fifty years. It has also impacted the democratisation of literature and the construction of a literary community in the country, tasks in which the school plays a central role. However, considering that literary education is not only carried out at school and, even in this case, cannot be analysed only based on the official documents that regulate it, different voices and other contexts must be studied to have a better understanding of how it has been developing and how we can improve it in the future.
ReferencesBraun, V. & Clarke, V. (2012). Thematic analysis. In Harris Cooper (Ed.), APA Handbook Of Research Methods in Psychology: Research Designs (pp. 57–71). American Psychology.
Cohen, L.; Manion, L. & Morrison, K. (2018). Research Methods Education, 8ª ed. Routledge Falmer.
Cosson, R. (2020). Paradigmas do Ensino da Literatura. Contexto.
Duarte, R. S. (2013). Ensino da Literatura: Nós e Laços [Thesis] Universidade do Minho.
Magalhães, J. (2019). Literatura e Ensino em Portugal. Impossibilia-Revista Internacional De Estudios Literarios (17), 5-27.
03. Curriculum Innovation
Paper
National Curricula After Great Transformation: Central and Eastern Europe and Beyond
Dominik Dvořák1, Revaz Tabatadze2
1Charles University, Czech Republic; 2The University of Georgia, School of Arts and Humanities, Tbilisi
Presenting Author: Dvořák, Dominik;
Tabatadze, Revaz
This year marks 35 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, which became a symbol of the great post-Soviet and post-Cold War transformation of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This change also affected the curricula of CEE educational systems. Unfortunately, it has been obvious for some time that the course and results of the transformation in a number of countries do not correspond to the expectations that stood at the beginning (Ther, 2019). Even where educational transformation appears to be successful, its impact on different groups of pupils varies. Moreover, Terry (2023) argues that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine marks the end of the post-Soviet / post-Cold war period when Russia as hegemon used its soft power in its former empire. In February 2022 the world, or at least the post-socialist states of CEE and Central Asia, entered new uncharted waters. In this contribution, we therefore seek to describe the changes of curricula in post-Soviet space and beyond and possibly extrapolate it.
Tendencies to authoritarian rule are not limited to successor states of the Soviet Union or its former satelites.The new threats to freedom of education at all levels as a result of the erosion of democracy and the return of illiberal systems all over the world are still little thematized in the educational literature. Thus, the questions we ask about the Central and Eastern Europe today may be relevant for the other areas in the future. Therefore, from the point of view of both educational theory and practical policy, it is very important to analyze how return of illiberal and authoritarian regimes affect school curriculum. At the same time, there is a need to reflect on how educational research on and in countries under authoritarian rule can and should be done. Examining the development of curricula in nations or regions under populist and illiberal governments can, it is hoped, strengthen the resilience of school systems in democratic countries, as well as addressing the practical issues as schooling the pupils coming (perhaps as refugees) of from these areas, recognition of their certificates issued by internationally unrecognized governments, cooperation with researchers from such jurisdictions, etc.
In our study, we try to look back and look forward: How has the curriculum of CEE countries changed during the transition to liberal market society and what changes are being made in countries where different forms of illiberal governments have been (re)establised? As the content (especially history and social sciences) has received most attention (Khavenson & Carnoy, 2016), we ask some other research questions: What do curriculum making processes (Priestley et al., 2021) look like in countries with different outcomes of transformation? How has the structure of curriculum documents changed? How does the impact of transfrormation on different domains of knowledge differ? What are the similarities and differences in curriculum governance across the post-socialist space?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedWe perform a multiple case study (Yin, 2018) of curriculum making processes in several post-socialist countries with a focus on two regions: Visegrad countries (Central Europe) and South Caucasus. Some of these countries represent standard nation-states in which traditional approaches of educational research can be applied, but some of them are quasi-states and/or under foreign illiberal rule (e.g. Abkhazia in Georgia). Morgenbesser and Weiss (2018) noted that with a high proportion of authoritarian regimes in many areas of the world, it is surprising how little attention is paid to the methodology of conducting social scientific research in these locations. Therefore, our research can also represent a contribution to methodology of research in illiberal terrain.
We mainly use desk research - analysis of documents and media releases. Desk research has clear advantages for the researcher in the case of authoritarian systems with hostile governments, but it has also obvious limitations. For the study of some aspects of authoritarian regimes, traditional written sources do not exist or have problematic value (reports produced by corrupt governments). In the period of Soviet rule, local authors tended to uncritically praise the achievements of socialist education and its superiority to Western models. In more recent sources, the previous stance remains to a certain extent, but at the same time the other extreme appears – emphasising problems that are supposed to legitimise the drawing of international development aid. There is a need to pay double attention to the critical analysis of how official sources reflect the real situation and trends.
Related to this are questions of positionality and reflection of the authors. Some Western authors come to the post-socialist space in the role of experts, and therefore they are also interested in emphasising the advantages of Western models. Local researchers, in turn, feel threatened by the renewed Russian pursuit of hegemony, so it is difficult for them to assess both the effects of the former central curricular policy and the current demands of the Russian-speaking populations of their countries. In our project, we therefore try to balance an insiders’ view based on intimate knowledge of post-socialist field with the methodological rigour of standards in comparative education (Silová, 2010).
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsIn initial phases of transformation, some curriculum changes were guided by neoliberal ideology rather than educational logic or research evidence (Elliot, 2014). Education reforms in CEE countries that restored their independence also have had an important symbolic function, since national curriculum is one of the attributes of a sovereign state and a cultural nation. Thus, the desired models were to be based on the experience of Western curricula to emphasize the closeness to Western European democratic countries and signal the competitiveness of its skilled workforce. Most recent changes in curricula in CEE countries, however, feature some elements a (neo)conservative "counter-revolution" and recentralisation, but it can also be reframed as "retro-innovations", i.e. the new use of traditional and proven approaches of continental Didactics (Sivesind & Westbury, 2016), such as more detailed centrally prepared syllabuses.
Paradoxically, in the Czech Republic, under the populist government of the ANO ("Yes") movement, the well-prepared and widely supported curriculum reform has been launched.
In post-soviet space, the current policy of Russia led to the emergence of various quasi-states (or de facto states), e.g. Transnistria in Moldova, the Donetsk and Luhansk “republics” in Ukraine – recently annexed to the Russian Federation, and Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia. The available information and schooling show the impact of the mass emigration from these areas and imposed the policy of russification in curriculum.
Finally, in Poland, in 2024, we can observe the new wave of changes in education, which has been under the influence of a conservative nationally (but not pro-Russian) oriented government for quite a long time. Therefore, in addition to recommendations for increasing resilience against illiberal interventions in education, our research also provides some optimistic findings about the renewal of the curriculum after a (temporary) slip to authoritarian rule.
ReferencesElliott, J. G. (2014). Lessons from abroad: Whatever happened to pedagogy? Comparative Education, 50(1), 27–44.
Janík, T., Porubský, Š., Chrappán, M., & Kuszák, K. (2020). Curriculum changes in the Visegrad Four: Three decades after the fall of communism. Waxmann.
Khavenson, T., & Carnoy, M. (2016). The unintended and intended academic consequences of educational reforms: The cases of post-Soviet Estonia, Latvia and Russia. Oxford Review of Education, 42(2), 178–199. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2016.1157063
Morgenbesser, L., & Weiss, M. (2018). Survive and thrive: Field research in authoritarian Southeast Asia. Asian Studies Review, 42(3), 385-403. 10.1080/10357823.2018.1472210
Piattoeva, N., Viseu, S., & Wirthová, J. (2023). Introduction to the special issue ‘Return of the nation: Education in an era of rising nationalism and populism’. European Educational Research Journal, 22(5), 595-606. https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041231188413
Priestley, M., Alvunger, D., Philippou, S., & Soini, T. (2021). Curriculum making in Europe: Policy and practice within and across diverse contexts (1st Ed.). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Silová, I. (Ed.) (2010). Rediscovering post-socialism in comparative education. In: Silová, I. (Ed.), Post-socialism is not dead: (Re)reading the global in comparative education (pp. 1–24). Emerald.
Sivesind, K., & Westbury, I. (2016). State-based curriculum-making, Part I. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 48(6), 744–756. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2016.1186737
Terry, G. S. (2023). An obituary for the post-soviet, 1991–2022. In S Šrāders & G. S Terry (Eds.), The Conference on Russia Papers 2023 (pp. 61–71). University of Tartu Press.
Ther, P. (2019). Das andere Ende der Geschichte: Essays zur großen Transformation. Suhrkamp Verlag.
Yin, R. K. (2018). Case study research and applications: Design and methods (6th edition). SAGE.
03. Curriculum Innovation
Paper
Designing Tomorrow's Curriculum: The Action Mapping Revolution
Yurgos Politis, Irene Lubbe
Central European Universi, Austria
Presenting Author: Politis, Yurgos
This paper will describe in detail how action mapping was utilized as the curriculum development approach of the re-design of a core module of a Certificate of Teaching in Higher Education.
In the realm of curriculum design for "Teaching in Higher Education," the adoption of Cathy Moore's action-mapping model (Moore, 2017) has proven to be a transformative approach. This innovative model provides a structured and learner-centric framework for designing curricula that facilitate active and engaging learning experiences. At its core, action-mapping focuses on identifying tangible performance-based objectives, designing relevant activities to achieve those objectives, and integrating formative feedback for continuous improvement. This process is instrumental in aligning curriculum design with the practical needs and challenges that educators face in higher education settings.
The decision to opt for the action-mapping model over the more traditional ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) model in curriculum design for "Teaching in Higher Education" was driven by a desire to address the unique challenges and requirements of higher education settings. While ADDIE is a well-established and widely used model that provides a systematic approach to curriculum design, action-mapping offered a more agile and learner-centric approach that better suited the dynamic and complex needs of educators in this context (Lubbe et al., 2023).
Research aim/objectives
It all started in the autumn of 2021 when the authors co-taught the original version of the module called Foundations of Teaching in Higher Education. The de-briefing sessions that took place after the completion of the module identified gaps in content, raised concerns on the delivery method (peer teaching) and questioned the consistency and rigour of the teaching sessions. This led the authors to engage on an iterative process of re-curriculation to improve the module and selected action-mapping as their design approach.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe first phase of action-mapping involved conducting a comprehensive needs analysis. This critical step ensures that curriculum designers have a deep understanding of the challenges, goals, and context within which educators operate.
In the second phase, the curriculum designers select activities and resources that directly address the defined objectives. These activities are designed to be engaging, interactive, and promote critical thinking.
The third phase involved creating a curriculum that allows for just-in-time learning, offering educators the flexibility to access resources and activities as needed. By providing this flexibility, the action-mapping model supports personalized learning pathways, enabling educators to focus on areas that are most relevant to their unique teaching contexts. Moreover, ongoing assessment and evaluation help identify areas for improvement, ensuring the curriculum remains dynamic and adaptive.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe re-curriculation resulted in a revised Foundations module, a new (additional) module and an entirely revamped Certificate with modules that scaffold and align vertically and horizontally. The students are better equipped with the didactics and pedagogy of teaching university students through creating their own teaching-sessions, syllabi and artifacts. Moreover, the authors embarked on an enriching journey of self-discovery as designers/developers of curricula.
ReferencesLubbe, J. C. (Irene), Adam, S., & Cordier, W. (2023). A Design Thinking Approach to Disentangle the Wicked Problem of Re-Curriculation during a Pandemic. Progressio. https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-5895/11062
Moore, C. (2017). Map it: The Hands-on Guide to Strategic Training Design. Montesa Press.
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