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Challenges of curricular contextualisation: teachers’ perspectives

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Abstract

Curriculum contextualisation and the role of teachers as curriculum makers are important for student learning. Building on this idea, this study was developed to understand if teachers from well-ranked schools are motivated to contextualise the curriculum and are using this strategy in their daily classroom routines. Data were gathered through focus group interviews with teachers from three Portuguese secondary schools that were well placed in the national exam ranking. The data analysis showed that teachers are motivated to contextualise the national curriculum in their daily teaching and learning practices to promote their students’ academic success and full development. However, teachers also identified constraints related to the existence of a mandatory national curriculum to be fulfilled, which is necessary for the national exams, and the length of the subject programmes. Despite the constraints, teachers recognised the positive outcomes of curricular contextualisation, mostly regarding the promotion of students’ motivation to learn.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded (in part) by National Funds through the FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology), through the project “[Putting knowledge in context towards the improvement of students’ achievement]”, with the ref. “[PTDC/CPE-CED/113768/2009]”, and within the strategic project of CIIE, with the ref. “UID/CED/00167/2013”.

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  1. Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Centre for Research and Intervention in Education (CIIE), University of Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen, 4200-135, Porto, Portugal

    Carlinda Leite, Preciosa Fernandes & Carla Figueiredo

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  1. Carlinda Leite
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  2. Preciosa Fernandes
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  3. Carla Figueiredo
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Correspondence to Carlinda Leite.

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Leite, C., Fernandes, P. & Figueiredo, C. Challenges of curricular contextualisation: teachers’ perspectives. Aust. Educ. Res. 45, 435–453 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-018-0271-1

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