Implementing Curriculum “More or Less” in Timor-Leste

Abstract

Curriculum reform is often oriented by top-down issues, particularly in implementing global imperatives around education. In post-colonial, post-occupied Timor-Leste, the most recent primary school curriculum (2014) has sought to reflect local needs and experiences and implement new content with learner-participatory strategies through scripted lesson plans. This study explores if and how teachers use these lesson plans, identifying patterns of pedagogical behaviour through classroom observation in nine schools. Short interviews with classroom teachers further revealed what understandings of the curriculum reform they brought to their work. The findings suggest that teachers are asserting some agency over the lesson plans in relation to how they perceive their local situation and needs of the students, but often omitting critical learning activities that are key features of the new curriculum. This bottom-up view suggests a basis for further reform, in this case, less scripting of ‘answers’, more focus on extending student language for new knowledge and professional development that focuses on specific pedagogical strategies.