Abstract
Similarly to other Visegrád Group countries, the most recent curriculum reform in the Czech Republic brought substantial changes in the curriculum documents for schools. The purpose of this study is to investigate Czech primary and lower secondary teachers’ current attitudes towards curriculum reform. The results of a survey (n = 701) indicate that teachers have adopted rather negative attitudes. The acceptance of reform tends to increase among the teachers who use curriculum documents regularly and among the teachers with higher self-efficacy. In addition, teachers with system-centred/curriculum-oriented approaches are willing to accept the reform. There is no significant difference between teachers’ gender, their length of teaching experience, and their involvement in school management. Within the general frame of the Concern-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), the study draws on data from one country, but the implications for further educational development are potentially applicable across countries with similar educational policy backgrounds.
Highlights
Curriculum reforms are often promoted as promising in terms of an increase in the quality of education
When investigating Czech teachers’ acceptance of curriculum reform, we primarily focused on the variables relating to the dimensions of attitudes based on the Concern-Based Adoption Model (CBAM; George et al, 2013)
Regarding the retrospective evaluation of empirical adequacy and theoretical conclusiveness of the CBAM, which served as inspiration for developing questionnaire items, our research has revealed a causal link between the two integral components of the model: attitudes towards curriculum reform and use of curriculum documents
Summary
Curriculum reforms are often promoted as promising in terms of an increase in the quality of education. The implementation of curriculum reforms as one of the forms of educational change is broadly reflected in manifestations of educational policy and programmes. In reliance upon Fullan (2014), we understand the implementation of curriculum reforms as a developmental process leading from the birth of a reform idea to its final implementation. The vitality of curriculum reforms depends on the teacher’s acceptance of the reforms and their principles, because the teachers are expected to put reform ideas into practice (Park & Sung, 2013). Various forms of teacher resistance may block the implementation of new reforms, since responding to reforms is an interpretive act that is personal, interactive, and continuous (cf Bantwini, 2010). Teachers’ resistance is a natural reaction to the changes manifested in their effort to resist reform practices assertively (Berkovich, 2011; Noyes, Wake, & Drake, 2013)
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