The dilemmas inherent in curriculum design: Unpacking the lived experiences of Australian teacher educators

Abstract

Teacher educators often find themselves struggling to enact a continually shifting teacher education reform policy agenda in relation to increasing standardisation and more strident accountability measures. This has to be balanced with best trying to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population in different community settings and to be well prepared for current and future challenges. We are three teacher educators who use narrative inquiry to interrogate these dilemmas and the ways in which they play out in teacher education curriculum design work. We analyse the stories and identify the three themes of contexts, currency, and connection. We offer a number of pro-active strategies to help teacher educators to make an agentive response to the task of curriculum planning. We suggest a variety of ways in which teacher educators can use their knowledge of place, policy, and working in partnerships to navigate through this highly regulated space.