IT teachers' beliefs about alternative curriculum designs: Results from a mixed methods study

Abstract

AbstractThis paper presents the results of an exploratory sequential mixed methods research project investigating Greek IT teachers' curriculum ideologies. Following the theoretical framework proposed by Michael Schiro, two different measurement tools were designed and implemented for the identification of teachers' philosophical beliefs about the curriculum. In the qualitative phase of the study, 33 semi‐structured interviews were conducted, in which IT teachers discussed the curriculum designs underlying four different lesson plans, all regarded with the common themes of ‘Robots’ and ‘Robotics’. Based on qualitative data analysis, a survey was administered, using a modified version of Schiro's original ‘Curriculum Ideologies Inventory’, in which 157 IT teachers participated. The findings of the study illustrated a direct preference towards the well‐known, widely recognized and highly promoted ‘Social efficiency’ ideology, embellished with remodelled elements of a ‘Learner‐centred’ ideology. Both ‘Social Reconstruction’ and ‘Scholar Academic’ ideologies were perceived as the edges, or the extremes of a continuum, with the first being conceived as too radical and risky, and the second as too traditional and conservative. On the contrary, the study's results also suggested that the process of measuring teachers' curriculum ideologies remains a complex and challenging issue and that teachers' stated curriculum preferences may reflect attributes directly concerned with their professional identity and their experiences in education.