Assignment 5: Curriculum Leadership: Part 2 (2-3 page paper)
Continuing with information from Chapter 4 of English’s text, as well as other sources, examine and reflect on these topics:
Recognize avoidance of outmoded management models,
Understand the drawbacks of top-down supervisory approaches, The nexus of curriculum leadership.
Your paper should include citations from texts.ins the appendix.
Assignment 5: Curriculum Leadership: Part 2
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Assignment 5: Curriculum Leadership: Part 2
Introduction
Curriculum development is never a walk in the park. It involves complex ideas put together to yield a tangible curriculum that is capable of changing individuals, communities, and the entire country (Keating et al., 2018). That should be the main focus of any curriculum, unfortunately, curriculum development is greatly influenced by powerful people, those in power, and the government. This category of people has gained control of curriculum development to satisfy certain ideologies and philosophy that is favorable to them. According to English (2010), failure to adhere to the interest of those in power during curriculum development might land someone in jail. To understand challenges in curriculum development, it is important to understand each of the topics below.
Avoidance of outmoded management models
According to English (2010), the most challenging managerial/organizational issue, impacting the achievement gap, that is often seen in curriculum audits is has been to separate lines and staff in the larger administrative structure. This separation is based on classical and well-accepted managerial thinking over time. Various interviews with teachers and administrators have hinted at a problem in aligning the written, taught, and tested curricula. Central office subject content specialists write the curriculum and align it to ensure a tight connection to the tested curricula. However, they have no authority in the implementation fidelity of the curriculum. If the implementation does not ensure fidelity to the design, the advantages are lost to the system (Keating et al., 2018). This challenge originates in the separation of line and staff. To avoid the problem, it is essential to combine both of them in new configurations of administrative duties.
Understand the drawbacks of top-down supervisory approaches
Another challenge is that the education industry is using supervisory approaches that are relics of the nineteenth-century factory models, whereby, floor foremen practiced oversight of workers on the shop floor and later on the assembly line. In this approach, any worker who missed a required action had to be corrected instantly to keep production going (Keating et al., 2018). It is this authoritarian and one-way relationship that is still used in schools today although teachers may know considerably more than their principles. How then can the principal supervise the teacher? They do, based on how students have scored on the tests, based on students’ motivation, and others. Therefore, the only job of the teacher is simply to deliver the curriculum better. English (2010) states that this problem can be solved by applying the Downey classroom walkthrough model for several reasons stated by the author.
The nexus of curriculum leadership
According to English (2010), making decisions about what to teach and test is the nexus of curriculum leadership because it is at this point that every question about education is relevant. Therefore, much more is entailed in the nexus because it is the starting point of what is hoped for (Keating et al., 2018). It should involve critical thinking a proper analysis. What is taught and tested defines the student in the future. Furthermore, students are not the means to obtaining better test scores, but rather the end of what education is about in the first place. English (2010) reiterates that curriculum alignment is a sound educational choice when up against the conditions imposed by governmental agencies regarding test score targets. Alignment makes sense outside of the political practices and strictures of the current times because it is at the heart of a trusting relationship between teachers and students.
Conclusion
Curriculum development involves complex ideas put together to yield a tangible curriculum that is capable of changing individuals, communities, and the entire country. The most challenging managerial issue is that the curriculum developers have less authority or no authority over the implementation of such a curriculum. All three topics have been addressed.
References
English, F. W. (2010). Deciding What to Teach and Test (3rd Edition). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781452271583
Keating, S. B., DeBoor, S. S., & Keating, S. B. (2018). Curriculum development and evaluation in nursing education. Springer Publishing Company