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The emerging role of the school curriculum director in light of school reform
Abstract
The purpose for conducting the study was to describe and compare the current and emerging roles and job functions of district-wide directors of curriculum, building principals, and classroom teachers as they relate to curriculum management and decision making. A questionnaire was designed by the researcher on curriculum decision making and the role of the director of curriculum, effective school research, restructuring schools, and teacher empowerment in order to focus on the tasks associated with curriculum decision making and management. The researcher sought to determine the existing and ideal curriculum job roles and responsibilities of curriculum directors, principals, and teachers; the existing and preferred degrees of curriculum decision-making authority for teachers, principals, and building staffs; and differences between group perceptions and perceptions between real and ideal practice. The sample population included 17 curriculum directors, 131 principals, and 262 teachers from Nebraska public schools. According to the respondents in the study, the responsibility for curriculum job functions was shared by all professional educators; however, curriculum directors were primarily responsible for most curriculum job functions. Teachers had major responsibility in areas directly related to classroom instruction. Principals had the least amount of curriculum responsibility. The respondents indicated a desire to change existing curriculum responsibility and authority for curriculum making. Curriculum directors indicated their levels of responsibility should be shared; the teachers indicated that ideally there should be an increase in teacher responsibility and a decrease in the responsibility levels of principals and curriculum directors; and principals indicated only minor changes from existing practices to ideal practices. There was agreement among respondents that principals and teachers, as a school staff, rather than individual teachers and principals had authority to make curriculum decisions. An inclination to increase the decision-making authority of building-level personnel was found. Respondents perceived the authority should be placed with the school staff as a unit rather than with individuals or principals.
Subject Area
Curricula|Teaching
Recommended Citation
Plugge, Lane, "The emerging role of the school curriculum director in light of school reform" (1989). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9004700.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9004700