Curriculum in special school contexts: A collaged framework for personalised, individual student learning

Interpreting and enacting curriculum in any school is a complex undertaking, even more so in special school contexts where teachers must develop and enact appropriate curriculum modifications and accommodations for small groups of students and individual students. In special education contexts, educational modifications are changes teachers make based on a standardised curriculum, in order to be able to support the individual learning of students with intellectual and other profound disabilities, in terms of personalising learning for each student. These modifications are derived from teachers' curriculum (re)interpretations. Conversely, educational accommodations are the adjustments that teachers make in how they deliver the interpreted curriculum through individual learning episodes without changing the existent learning foci. This article presents a theorisation of how some special school educators interpret and reinterpret standardised curriculum to support the individual learning needs of students with moderate to profound disabilities through operationalising a theoretical framework of personalised learning. Operationalising personalised learning in special school contexts is theorised to be a collaged hermeneutical circle, where special education teachers work to (re)interpret curriculum, alongside the individual learning needs evidenced through teacher assessments and observations, and from student individual education plans. Within special school contexts, teachers approach the Australian Curriculum text as collaborative teams and engage in dialogue and planning about the curriculum to be taught and assessed. Thus, they aim to ensure that their students engage with the appropriate curriculum and have opportunities for learning on the same basis as students without their specific needs (i.e. students without disability). Unlike teachers in mainstream schooling contexts, teachers in special schools must (re)interpret curriculum that has not been explicitly developed for the unique learning needs of students with profound disability.